In Great Britain, the Queen Mother used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In 2002, London mayor Ken Livingstone organised an annual Saint Patrick's Day parade which takes place on weekends around the 17th, usually in Trafalgar Square. In 2008 the water in the Trafalgar Square fountains was dyed green.
The horse racing at the Cheltenham Festival attracts large numbers of Irish people, both residents of Britain and many who travel from Ireland, and usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day.[19]
The largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in Britain is held in Birmingham[20] over a two mile (3 km) route through the city centre. The organisers describe it as the third biggest parade in the world after Dublin and New York.[citation needed] Other Saint Patrick's Day parades take place around the country including in London where the largest minority community is Irish[citation needed]. The Scottish town of Coatbridge, where the majority of the town's population are of Irish descent[citation needed], also has a day of celebration and parades in the town centre.
Liverpool with its geographical location as a major port leading to the Irish Sea has the largest per-capita Irish population of any English city.[citation needed]This has lead to a long standing celebration on St Patrick's Day in terms of music, cultural events and the parade.
Manchester hosts a two week Irish festival in the weeks prior to St Patrick's Day. The festival includes an Irish Market based at the city's town hall which flies the Irish tricolour opposite the Union Flag, a large parade (claiming to be the biggest outside of Dublin and New York based on entrant and float numbers) as well as a large number of cultural and learning events throughout the two-week period. The festival promotes itself as the largest in the UK.[21]
Portions of this article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "St Patrick Day" .
Citations and notes
19. BBC News - The day the world turns green March 14, 1998
20. Connecting Histories - St Patrick's Day Parade
21. Manchester Irish Festival
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