Visitor numbers for St Patrick's Day up 5% on last year

Visitor numbers at Dublin airport between last Sunday and St Patrick's Day are expected to be up by almost 5 per cent on last year.

However, some of the €80 million generated for Dublin's economy during the 2003 festivities may be at risk this year because of the planned transport strike on Thursday.

Aer Rianta and Iarnród Éireann said commuter numbers would be lower than if St Patrick's Day fell closer to the weekend. The transport strike planned for Thursday will also result in many people deciding not to travel within the country today and tomorrow, for fear of being stranded.

The numbers using Dublin airport, which handles the bulk of tourists entering the State, between last Sunday and tomorrow, will be 219,000, up from 210,000 during the same four-day period last year.

The biggest event of tomorrow's celebrations will be the St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin city centre, which is just one in a series of events being staged in the capital as part of the St Patrick's Day festival. Parades will also be the main feature in towns and cities nationwide.

Following the cancellation of the 7UP music stage in Dublin on Sunday due to rain and strong winds, the showery and breezy forecast for tomorrow, albeit with some sunny spells, threatens to wash out many events.

Dublin's parade gets under way at noon from St Patrick's cathedral, with Miss World, Rosanna Davison, as Grand Marshal. The parade route includes Dame Street, Westmoreland Street and O'Connell Street, before finishing at St Mary's Place off Dorset Street. More than 3,500 performers will take part, many of whom have travelled from overseas.

The usual commemorative gathering for poet Patrick Kavanagh takes place at his bench at Baggot Street Bridge at 3 p.m. A bigger turn-out than usual is expected because it is Kavanagh's centenary year.

Other events scheduled in the city include the French market, which opens between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. today and tomorrow at Wolfe Tone Square, off Jervis Street.

An open-air funfair will be set up today at Custom House Quay and will be operational tomorrow. A traditional music concert, Céilí Mór, takes place at Earlsfort Terrace tomorrow between 2.30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) said road closures facilitating the events were too lengthy and poorly planned. Sections of the Custom House Quay, while open to traffic today, will close tomorrow until 6 a.m. on Thursday. "It's ludicrous that the main drag in the capital should be closed off for this length of time without a substantial Plan B to cater for the overflow of traffic as result of the closures," said Mr Jimmy Quinn, IRHA spokesman.

Fine Gael's spokesman on transport, Mr Denis Naughten, last night called on the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to implement a special traffic plan for next year's festival.

He said "chronic congestion" had hit Dublin yesterday, two days before St Patrick's Day.

In Galway, 50 groups will take part in the parade which will run along a new route, starting at Galway fire station at 12.30 p.m, taking in Shop Street and ending in the old market, Woodquay.

Rising insurance costs and local apathy have combined to prevent the staging of a parade in Ennis for the second year running. Ennis Town Council advertised in local media last December, seeking local organisations to become involved in the parade. The advert resulted in just one response.'