Roll out the green carpet – the party is on
ST PATRICK’S DAY FESTIVAL, St Patrick’s Day celebrations won’t be far from where you are
Dublin Airport will be rolling out the green carpet for more than 240,000 passengers over the course of the four-day festival. More than 1,600 flights will arrive and depart over the course of the long weekend.
Passengers are advised to arrive 90 minutes before departure and to check from which terminal their flight will depart before leaving home.
Terminals 1 and 2 will be decked out with bunting and balloons in celebration. Overseas travellers can expect to be greeted by jugglers, stilt walkers and traditional Irish bands upon arrival.
In Dublin city centre, the St Patrick’s Day Parade will set off from Parnell Square at midday today. The parade will explore the theme of “How? What? Why?” to commemorate Dublin’s designation as City of Science 2012.
For the first time, a group of Polish children and teenagers will be participating in the Dublin parade, as part of the Brighter Futures project. As part of the project, 11 students along with other youth groups from the city will march together to visually represent the science theme of “gravity”.
Those lucky enough to be named Patrick, or any variation thereof, might want to venture over to the Guinness Storehouse. Patricks will be treated as VIPs, or Very Important Patricks, receiving free admission to the Guinness Storehouse St Patrick’s Festival. The festival will have live music, food tasting, a Guinness World Record attempt, a céilí mór and plenty of Guinness. Patricks will need to bring ID.
At Dublin Zoo, even the animals will be getting in on the festive fun – they’ll be given Tricolour treats of orange and green fruit and vegetables. Listen up to St Patrick’s-themed zookeeper talks, face painting and other child-friendly activities.
Funfairs will be in full swing all day on Dublin’s Merrion Square, Wolfe Tone Park and the Custom House Quay.
Belfast’s carnival parade will begin at midday from City Hall and wind its way down to the Custom House Square. Music abounds, with the Red Hot Chili Pipers and X-Factor finalist Sophie Habibis headlining the music stage. Contemporary and folk musicians will join them, as well as the Royal Tara School of Irish Dance.
In Cork, the parade starts from Parnell Place at 1pm. All day long the Living Social Music Stage at the Grand Parade and Boardwalk South Mall will feature tunes from Comhaltas, Meascáin and Death by Chocolate. A trad trail and Barry’s Tea Market will entertain after the parade.
Galway’s parade will set off at 11.30am from Lower Dominick Street. The trad trail will be entertaining all weekend in the Latin Quarter, and the International Print Exhibition will be open throughout the festival.
Foreign visitors flock to Ireland to get a taste for the celebrations
TOURISTS FLOCK to Ireland from all across the globe in the hope of Irish hospitality, music, and, of course, a good pint.
Despite the rainy weather, visitors began to pour into Temple Bar early yesterday afternoon.
Sato Haru and Natsu Yamamoto arrived yesterday all the way from Japan. This five-day stay will be the girls’ first time in Ireland. Although they will spend most of their time in Dublin, they have already gone sight-seeing in Kilkenny.
“I love Irish music and I hope to enjoy St Patrick’s Day,” Yamamoto said. They plan to see the parade, and later this week head over to the Guinness Storehouse and Dublin Castle. One of their favourite perks so far has been the beer. “It costs double in Japan!” Haru said.
Jim Schmidt came to Ireland with his wife specifically for the St Patrick’s Festival. The pair, who are from California but living in Germany for the last five years, will be here for three days, and will stay in Dublin. Even though they just arrived, they already plan to visit again soon.
“We will come back and see other parts of Ireland. We’re just a hop away,” Schmidt said.
Temple Bar was also packed with people celebrating special events.
The St Patrick’s Day link with alcohol must be broken in Ireland
says Minister Roisin Shortall
IRELAND must get rid of the link’ between St Patrick’s Day celebrations and alcohol, Labour minister Roisín Shortall has said.
She said that there was a “very close connection between alcohol and our national celebrations”, and called for drinking to be sidelined in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day.
Shortall, the Minister of State for drug policy, also hit out at supermarket advertising campaigns linking alcohol to images of Irishness.
She said one supermarket had been “irresponsible” in placing shamrocks on bottles of whiskey and vodka. Shortall told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland:
It’s a matter of concern to a lot of people that there is a very close connection between alcohol and a lot of our national celebrations in this country. It plays a very central role in our lives. We know that St Patrick’s day should be a great day for Ireland, but too often it’s marred by alcohol.
Shortall said that planned legislation introducing new restrictions on alcohol sales and marketing would be brought forward by the middle of 2012.
She confirmed that proposals to ban alcohol sponsorship of sporting and arts events were likely to be included, and said the price of the cheapest alcohol in supermarkets would be increased.
Inside a glass box for Gerry to: Raise money & see the parade over the Shannon
The things people will do anything to get a better view of the St Patrick’s Day parade.
Gerry McCormack from Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim, yesterday packed his fold-away chair, sleeping bag, a couple of books, mobile phone and water supply into a glass box which was promptly raised by crane 50 metres (150 feet) over the river Shannon in Carrick-on-Shannon, where it will stay – weather and Gerry’s determination permitting – until 2pm tomorrow.
“I’ll be 50 this year so I’m going to stay for 50 hours,” promised Drumshanbo’s answer to David Blaine, who will fast for the duration and who is undertaking the adventure to raise money for his third trip to Haiti with the Haven Build-It charity.
“I’m very proud of him – but I told him I want him down for Mother’s Day,” said Gerry’s mother Maura, who permitted herself a tear as the glass box was slowly hoisted and her eldest child headed skywards, gamely giving her the thumbs up as he went. The businessman, who runs Proglass Windscreens, didn’t actually make the glass cube himself, but he pointed out that for insurance reasons the only exit is on top of the box. “I’m about 5’ 10” and the box measures six feet wide and high, but I can stick my head out the hatch if I want,” he said.
Gerry has no worries about hunger, vertigo or boredom, and he brushed away queries about toilet requirements, pointing out that he is fasting. “This is easy when you see what it’s like in Haiti,” said Gerry, who wants to raise €5,000 for the house-building project there. “The only thing I am nervous about is raising enough money – and I’m also a bit worried about the wind.”
Gerry’s two sons, David (25) and Mark (24), were among the send-off party who gathered in the Moon River car park for lift-off at noon yesterday. “He is unbelievably organised. There is a solar panel on the box for charging batteries and he has a makeshift bed,” said David.
Ireland’s consumer price index is up by 2.1% up to the end of February
CONSUMER PRICES in Ireland rose by 2.1 per cent in the year to February, according to new data published by the Central Statistics Office.
The increase was fuelled by rises in the cost of education, which gained 9.4 per cent compared with a year earlier, and housing and utilities, which rose 5.8 per cent.
Other notable increases over the year were transport costs, which rose by 4.8 per cent – mainly as a result of rising fuel prices, and miscellaneous goods, which were 3.2 per cent higher. This latter category includes items such as health insurance premiums which have risen sharply over the last year.
These increases were partially offset by a fall in the price of furnishings and household equipment, which was down 2 per cent, and a 0.9 per cent fall in the cost of recreational activities. The latter category includes everything from sports participation, the cost of which was 5 per cent lower, to the price of gardens, plants and flowers, which rose by 3.5 per cent, and books.
Bloxham chief economist Alan McQuaid said the figures were worse than expected, although inflation has eased slightly from January, when the annual rate was at 2.2 per cent.
“Taking everything into account, and despite the higher than expected headline inflation rate in February, we still feel that inflation will be lower on average this year than in 2011,” he said.
“Clearly a lot depends on how severe the global downturn is and how quickly the world economy recovers, but currently we believe Ireland’s headline inflation rate may average little more than 1.5 per cent in 2012.”
On a monthly basis prices in February were 0.9 per cent higher than January as the end of traditional winter sales meant a rise in the cost of clothing and footwear, which gained 8.2 per cent.
Transport costs were pushed 2.7 per cent higher as airfares rose and the price of petrol and diesel continued to rise. Housing and utilities prices declined marginally, by 0.4 per cent, as mortgage interest rates eased, while alcohol and tobacco fell by a similar amount. This sector includes the cost of water, electricity, gas and other fuels, in addition to mortgage interest, rent and the cost of maintaining properties.
“We expect that the increase in VAT and energy prices will be offset by weak domestic demand as retailers exposed to the discretionary spending of the Irish consumer will continue to have very little pricing power.
“However, a prolonged increase in energy prices poses an upside risk to headline inflation,” Goodbody said.
In the services sector, the annual rate of inflation was 3 per cent, with goods rising by 1 per cent.
The harmonised index (HICP), which excludes items such as mortgage interest, rose by 1.1 per cent on the month and 1.6 per cent year on year.
Business groups warned of potential consequences should the Government fail to take action on high State-controlled costs.
Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said the contraction in consumer disposable incomes would help disguise the “upward impetus from indirect taxes and increased charges for government services which continue unabated”.
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