Visitors parade streets in search of festival cheer

Billed as one of the most uneventful St Patrick's Days for years many still found their way onto streets of Dublin in search of a way to celebrate the national day.

Maxine and Natalie from South Africa

Fear of the food-and-mouth reaching the Republic prompted the postponement of scores of events.

Nevertheless despite the lack of a parade, grey skies and icy temperatures tall green hats and pints of guinness were the order of the day for several hundred visitors who meandered around the city centre streets this afternoon.

While many sheltered from the inclement weather in the pub, others took advantage of the relaxed atmosphere to do a bit of shopping.

Meanwhile St Patrick's Day prayers for the avoidance of foot-and-mouth were being offered in churches throughout the country.

Yesterday's easing of some of the restrictions imposed by the Government to guard against the spread of the virus came too late to permit the staging of any of the main parades.

Even though so many events have been cancelled, there's still a wonderful atmosphere and everyone seems to be having a good time Angelica from Stockholm, Sweden who is in Dublin on the day

One of the first events to be postponed when the full scale of the foot-and-mouth threat became clear earlier this month was the Dublin parade, which normally threads its way through the streets of the capital, led by dozens of marching bands and featuring hundreds of performers.

The Dublin show is normally watched by 500,000 spectators, many of whom regularly fly in specially from the US and other parts of the world.

The organisers said they planned to stage the procession on another date in the near future.

That intent was backed byFianna Fáil TD Mr Martin Brady.He called on Bord Fáilte to put its weight behind a campaign to make sure the St Patrick's parade in Dublin went ahead in the summer.Also off are annual processions in Cork and Limerick and a host of other cities and towns across the country.

But still on are a series of concerts in Dublin next week featuring boy band chart-toppers Westlife, with 70,000 tickets already sold.

Another event to survive has been the Irish International Antiques and Fine Arts Fair in Dublin. Around 7,000 are set to turn up there.

PA