Large crowd at St. Patrick’s day parade in Galway
Performers in the St Patrick’s Day parade crossing O’Connell Bridge in Dublin on the left and in Galway city on the right.
Irish international footballer and Barna native Dora Gorman (19) was guest of honour for Galway’s St Patrick’s Day parade, which was one of the largest in recent years in the city.
Gardaí estimate that some 70,000 people attended the event, which involved over 80 groups and took some two hours to make its way through the city.
Hail showers, rain and even thunder had been forecast, but the presence of a super snake may have scared off the weather gods. Up to 100 young people from a number of youth groups were involved in creating the serpent, which was led through the streets by Foróige.
Galway’s new Irish communities were also well represented, with a particular cheer reserved for the Russian Cultural Club Alliance.
Former mayor and Fine Gael councillor Padraig Conneely refused to take his seat on the reviewing stand in Eyre Square, in protest at the continued presence of Occupy Galway.
The sole remaining anti-globalisation camp organised its own events, including storytelling and face painting, and several of its supporters also took part unofficially in the parade when seven zombie bankers were chased by St Patrick with his mitre.
The event organisers said they had received no application from the grouping, and that the parade is “non-political and non-religious”.
However, camp members said they understood that their application had been refused.
Gardaí say they are maintaining a presence in the city centre tonight. Earlier this week, Labour councillor Niall MacNelis said seven off-licence outlets had agreed to open later than normal as part of a move to avoid the day becoming a “drink-fuelled mess”.
However, groups of secondary school students gathered with off-licence alcohol in several areas of the city from early afternoon, including Ballymoneen in Knocknacarra.
The Duchess of Cambridge presents shamrocks to 40 of the Irish Guards in Aldershot
The duchess presents a shamrock to the regimental mascot
The Duchess of Cambridge has presented shamrocks to 40 members of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards at their St Patrick’s Day parade in Aldershot.
The tradition goes back to the first regimental St Patrick’s Day in 1901.
Last year husband William was made an honorary colonel of the regiment and in June the couple decorated members for their Afghan service.
The ceremony was the duchess’s first solo military engagement and will start an ongoing connection to the regiment.
Previously the presentation of the shamrocks was performed by the late Queen Mother. The regiment supplied the pallbearers for her funeral in 2002.
Soldiers ‘fainted’ The 30-year-old duchess, dressed in a green dress coat, wore a gold shamrock brooch, which has been handed down through the Royal family and was once worn by the Queen Mother.
Shortly before her arrival two soldiers had to be escorted from the parade ground when they appeared to faint.
Members of the regiment paraded at Mons Barracks in full ceremonial uniform of scarlet tunics and bearskins, accompanied by the regimental mascot, an Irish Wolfhound named Conmeal.
Drummer Oliver Vaughey, 22, who has been a dog handler for two-and-a-half years, said: “He has been our mascot for four years and always marches in front of the regiment.”
The military band played the first few bars of God Save The Queen as the duchess readied herself to present the shamrocks to the 40 officers and warrant officers.
She smiled as she was presented with a posy by five-year-old Isabella Stevenson, the daughter of the regimental sergeant major.
She also spent time speaking to members of the Regiment Association and the Mini Micks cadets on the parade ground before being photographed with 100 sergeants and then with 40 officers.
The regiment was formed on 1 April 1900 by Queen Victoria, as a sign of recognition of courageous acts carried out by Irish soldiers serving in the British Army in the second Boer War in South Africa.
Most recently, the battalion took part in Operation Herrick 13 in Helmand province from September 2010-April 2011, as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade.
Their main responsibility was training and mentoring the Afghan National Army as part of their preparation for eventually taking control of the country’s security.
Martin McGuinness could be set for a historic face-to-face meeting with the Queen
The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister and former IRA commander Martin McGuinness could be set for a historic first meeting with the Queen.
The Government and Buckingham Palace have yet to comment but it now appears a face-to-face meeting is increasingly likely.
This would represent a historic break with the past by republicans and mark an important milestone for community relations in Northern Ireland.
Mr McGuinness said the issue could be considered in the future as a gesture to unionists but his party has insisted it has not held any official discussions.
This follows the Queen‘s hugely significant state visit to theIrish Republic last year, where she was praised for a series of gestures aimed at healing the divisions of the past.
Rev Harold Good, a Methodist minister who played a prominent role in the peace process, said a meeting between the Queen and Mr McGuinness would help the process of building bridges between Protestants and Catholics.
“I think this would be hugely encouraging,” he said.
“I think it would be appreciated by people from the unionist community. They would see this as a very important sign from a very senior figure in the republican/nationalist community. I think it would also help heal some of the historic stand-offs that we have had.”
Rev Good said any meeting would form part of a series of reciprocal gestures between unionists and republicans, which he said had taken place without either political leadership shedding their beliefs.
The Queen is making a series of high-profile visits for the diamond jubilee of her coronation in June and there are predictions her next visit to Northern Ireland could come in the early summer.
However, there has also been speculation that the monarch could officially open Belfast‘s new £90 million Titanic-themed tourist attraction at the end of this month, or the major visitors’ centre being opened at the Giant’s Causeway in Co Antrim in June.
When the Queen paid her first state visit to the Republic of Ireland last year, she was joined by the Irish president in honouring those who died in the world wars. But the Queen also laid a wreath to republicans killed fighting British rule in Ireland and used a keynote address at a state banquet to speak in Irish.
The moves were among a string of major gestures acknowledged as being highly significant by prominent Irish figures, including Mr McGuinness.
Sinn Fein leaders have always refused to meet members of the royal family, citing opposition to Britain‘s continued role in Ireland and the part that royals play as figureheads of the armed forces.
Troubled history has also centred on the IRA murder of the Queen’s cousin Lord Mountbatten in a bomb attack on his boat in Co Sligo, near the Irish border. The 1979 attack also claimed the lives of three other people including two teenage boys.
Last May Sinn Fein declined an invitation for Mr McGuinness to meet the Queen as part of her state visit to the Irish Republic.
But when he contested the Irish presidential election last October, Mr McGuinness said he would be prepared to meet members of the royal family if he became Ireland’s head of state. This prompted questions from unionists in Northern Ireland who noted his refusal to meet the monarch as part of his role as the effective joint-leader of the Stormont power-sharing government.
Since then however, Mr McGuinness has made increasingly positive comments about the possibility of meeting the Queen. He said he was struck by the gestures made by the Queen during her state visit.
He went on: “But what was I most impressed with? I was most impressed with her speech in Dublin Castle when she talked about how we could all have wished that things could have been done differently or not at all.”
He told Irish broadcaster RTE that her state visit would inform any discussions on a future meeting.
Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds has also pointed to a change in the public mood around royal visits to Northern Ireland. The Westminster representative asked if visits by the Queen to Northern Ireland could be publicised in advance, as they are in Britain.
“Those visits are generally known about. They have been publicised and preparations have been made,” he said.
“However, although we must be conscious of the security issues (in Northern Ireland) as much notice as possible of Her Majesty’s visits should be given, so that everyone knows about her itinerary and can celebrate.”
The Queen’s press secretary, Ailsa Anderson, said: “Planning is in an embryonic stage so there have been no decisions made about where the Queen will go or who she will meet.”
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