Brisbane St Patrick’s Day Parade 2011

Photography by Jim O’Reilly

Dennis McAuliffe from Clare, John Joe Hartnett from Kerry and Pádraic Dooley from Offaly.

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Pigs fly: Volunteers prepare a St.Patrick's day float, in Dublin. (Pic: Julien Behal/PA)

President Mary McAleese has paid tribute to volunteers around the world who make St Patrick’s Day a global festival.

Ms McAleese said while Ireland is beset by economic difficulties, people should take hope and inspiration from past problems transcended.

She said across the world Irish people and their friends will tomorrow join in joyful, fun-filled celebrations of the country’s great heritage and fascinating culture.

“It’s a day that reminds us of the enduring solidarity of the global Irish family, the strength it gives us and the pride,” added Ms McAleese.

The President said it was volunteers at home and abroad who fly the flag for Ireland, not only on St Patrick’s Day but all year round.

“They are the backbone of our country and they are its heart and its soul,” she added.

Ireland’s bishops also wished their faithful at home and abroad a joyful and peaceful St Patrick’s Day.

“In 2011 we are in the midst of an economic recession which has resulted in unemployment and emigration for many individuals and families in Ireland,” they said in a statement.

“The plight of Patrick, himself a migrant, has been faced by many Irish people who have struggled to live and integrate into new cultures.

“Let us remain in our prayers those who are suffering at this time.”

As Taoiseach Enda Kenny arrived in Washington to mark the national holiday with President Barack Obama at the White House, thousands of tourists touched down in Dublin for its world-famous parade.

The finishing touches were also being put to an army of colourful floats and displays for the event, which is based on the specially commissioned short story by Roddy Doyle .

Performing arts companies will each tell a chapter from Brilliant, which can be downloaded from www.stpatricksfestival.ie.

Marching bands from Dublin, the United States, France and Spain will also take part in the parade, which starts at noon.

Elsewhere a series of literary, cultural and artistic events, including an open air ceili, are bringing the capital alive during the four-day St Patrick’s Festival, which is themed in honour of Dublin’s designation as Unesco City Of Literature.

PA

Melbourne organisers are looking forward to an increased turnout for their St Patrick's Day celebrations.

St Patrick’s Day festivities in Melbourne have been steadily growing in size since the festival was re-launched in the city in 2009, following a five year hiatus.

Organised by the volunteer St Patrick’s Festival committee, the event relies heavily on sponsorship and donations.

Communications Officer Gareth Taylor says the event is still in its “infant stages”.

“The overall goal is to bring back the former glory of St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Melbourne,” he told the Echo.

“We are starting small and looking to build more awareness, but are getting bigger each year.”

Mr Taylor says the committee is keen to eventually get a traditional parade march going from the parks to the city. Around 2,500 people turned up last year, an increase of 1,000 on the previous year.

Organisers are hoping for an increased turnout again this year. We already have more to offer this year,” says Mr Taylor.

This year’s family festival takes place at the Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy on Sunday, March 13 between 12.00pm and 5.00pm.

Entry is free and there will be local bands and Irish traditional dancing troupes on the day, as well as face painting and a petting zoo. A raffle will also be held, with the prize of two return tickets to Ireland and free car hire provided by sponsors Emerald Travel.

Meanwhile, the St Patrick’s Day parade did not go ahead in Perth last year and no major community festivities have been planned for this year.

The Irish Club of Western Australia, based in Subiaco, is holding its own celebrations on March 17, and will be open to the public all day.

Traditional live bands will provide the music until late and there will be traditional food and drink available throughout the day.

Entry is free of charge.

by Claire McGreal

Sydney’s iconic Opera House will not be turning green again this St Patrick’s Day, after Tourism Ireland lost out to YouTube in a bid to illuminate the sails on March 17.

Along with other famous global landmarks including the Empire State Building in New York and South Africa’s Table Mountain, the sails of the Opera House were bathed in green light for the first time last year, to mark the 200 anniversary of Sydney’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

However, due to conflicting schedules, Sydney’s most famous building won’t be part of the Tourism Ireland campaign this year.

“On November 29 ,2010 we advised Tourism Ireland that the illumination of the sails would not be possible because of a week-long event already booked in, which involves projections onto the sails and a substantial amount of technical preparation,” a spokesperson for the Sydney Opera House told the Echo.

“This event is the YouTube Symphony Orchestra which takes place between March 14 to 20 and is a co-presentation between Sydney Opera House and YouTube. It wasn’t a case of the quota being reached or  a missed deadline. We already had another event booked in.”

Despite expressing disappointment at the outcome, Tourism Ireland says it is “fully satisfied” the issue was indeed a scheduling one, with Australia-New Zealand manager Caroline Brunel insisting there were “no hard feelings”.

“It is definitely disappointing but the reality is the Opera House had a programme planned for a long time where they have to use the sails, so you can’t really compete with that.”

Ms Brunel says the company made sure to get their request for illumination in early, and first approached the Opera House as far back as May.
“We didn’t want to leave it too long,” explains Ms Brunel.

“We had the same process as last time where you build a case, give them all the benefits and make sure they know it’s a win-win for them as well.”
She also concedes that the green lights may not have packed as much of a punch as last year, had it gone ahead.

“We had the wow factor [in 2010] which was really important. We got great publicity out of it, but it probably wouldn’t have been as big this year as it would have been a repeat.”

Attempts to “green” the Harbour Bridge also proved unsuccessful, due to Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) concerns that illumination would compete with existing lights.

However Ms Brunel says Tourism Ireland is keen to try for illumination of the Opera House again next year.

“It’s something we should try every year. It’s so visual, it’s quite amazing.”

by Claire McGreal

New Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald with Michael Noonan (left) and Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Children in the new Irish government, will travel to Australia and  New Zealand next week to attend St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Ms Fitzgerald, one of only three female ministers in the new cabinet, is one of just eight ministers travelling abroad this year to attend Irish events abroad.

Her itinerary is a work in progress but she will almost certainly attend the opening of the Irish In Australia exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra on Wednesday and the Lansdowne Club St Patrick’s Day lunch on St Patrick’s Day itself, which will also be attended by Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard.

Born in Limerick, Ms Fitzgerald is a TD for Dublin Mid West.

On her Fine Gael webpage, she says that her great hope for the future is to see an end to emigration.

She was appointed Leader of the Opposition in the Senate on her election as a Senator to the 23rd Seanad and previously served as TD for Dublin South East for ten years. She gained a B.Soc. Science in U.C.D. and an M.SC. in Social Administration and Social Work in the London School of Economics. Prior to her election to the Dáil, Frances was a high profile Chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (1988-1992) and Vice President of the European Women’s Lobby.

She is married to Michael, a child psychiatrist, and they have three sons in their 20s: a young actor, a trainee accountant and a college student.

She lists John Hume as her political hero but also admires Hilary Clinton for her “tenacity, political determination and success”.

Watch for an interview with Minister Fitzgerald in the next print edition of the Irish Echo.

Three Melbourne-based Kerrymen and four of their friends in New York, Asia and Canada were flown home for St Patrick's Day by 7Up.

TIM McCARTHY from Killorglin, Co Kerry has been living in Melbourne for the last five months. But he and six friends were flown home to Ireland to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, courtesy of a 7Up competition.

The prize was to fly a group of seven Irish friends home for St Patrick’s Day from wherever they were in the world. Tim’s team, 7uptonogood, beat off all comers to claim the prize, which is worth tens of thousands of dollars.

“The only criteria to enter it was you had to be seven friends from Ireland who were separated around the world and wanted to get home for St Patrick’s Day,” said Tim.

“There’s three of us in Melbourne, two in New York, one in Vancouver and one in Asia.

“There were hundreds of entries and we made it to the last seven. When you made it that far you were given tasks to do and it was done on public voting.

“My mom has a shop in Killarney and she was giving free treats to anyone who offered to vote for us. It worked; there was massive support in Kerry for us,” he told the Irish Echo.

This support extended to being featured in the Kerry’s Eye and Kerryman newspapers and on Radio Kerry.

“The Munster rugby forum put us in their online magazine too and it got over 1500 hits, so there were plenty of people looking for us,” said Tim.

So what about the tasks finalists had to do?

“The first was a challenge to get photos of the team members with a 7Up poster/product next to a national landmark from the country we were in e.g. Sydney Opera House/Statue of Liberty. I took a photo with Jack Holden (Paul O’Brien) from Home and Away.

“The second task was to make a video to promote our team’s campaign. We made one which was basically the video from ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ with each of the team members’ heads superimposed on the bodies of the cast from the show,” he said.

“The final task involved a challenge whereby our friends and family had to take photos showing how much they missed us.”

Tim was shocked to win. “I genuinely thought we had been pipped at the post by the team from Limerick who put in a missive effort to claim first spot.

“7Up took down the leaderboard with about 24 hours of voting left to go. At that time we were coming second after having been in first place for most of the competition. During that final 24 hours all of our friends and family obviously put in a huge attempt to reclaim first spot for us and thankfully they succeeded,” he said.

“When the results came in each of us in Melbourne had a tearful phone call from home. Gary, Trevor and I each spoke to our mothers who were absolutely thrilled that we had won and would be coming home for a visit.

“If it wasn’t for our family and friends putting in so much time and effort we wouldn’t be coming home so any credit for this achievement goes directly to them.

“It’s a dream come true and we couldn’t be happier,” he said.

“There’s a big party in our honour in Dublin as part of the prize. Ash and The Republic Of Loose are playing at it.”

Tim will continue to work in telesales selling solar panels when he gets back to Melbourne after the trip home.

“We’re on a one year visa at the moment but we’re hoping to stay for a second year. We’re going up the east coast in June and we’re going to start working in July doing three months fruit picking so we can stay for the second year,” he said.

by Pádraig Collins

Tony Kelly MP, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and visiting Irish Minister for Trade Billy Kelleher at the Lansdowne Club St Patrick's Day Lunch in Sydney on March 19.

Australia’s political leaders joined in the Irish celebrations like never before on St Patrick’s Day last week.

At the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce (IACC) breakfast in Melbourne, Victorian Premier John Brumby got the crowd on his side by saying “St Patrick’s Day is undoubtedly Australia’s favourite non-Australian national day”.

Mr Brumby’s great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side was an Irishman.

“His name was James O’Neill – and he was a teacher in regional Victoria. In fact, he was the first head teacher at Seymour Primary School, which opened for business in November 1857,” he said.

More recently, he revealed that his eldest daughter Elizabeth attended Trinity College last year and the Premier and his wife Rosemary visited her in Dublin.

“A lasting impression of that visit was undoubtedly our very first Irish taxi experience,” he said.

“As we left the airport Rosemary realised her mobile was flat and she was eager to see if there were any messages from the family back home. So she asked our taxi driver whether he knew of anywhere with a mobile charger.

“No sooner had she asked, than he lent forward, reached under his seat and surfaced with about a dozen different chargers. ‘Take your pick,’ he said. And sure enough, one of them was compatible.”

Speaking at the same event, Kevin Andrews, shadow Federal Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services, detailed the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger economy.

“We can rejoice that Ireland will rebound, and we can learn from her experiences, as we have in the past,” said Mr Andrews.

“The resilience and good humour of the Irish is legendry; as is their sense of camaraderie and commitment. Let us celebrate today with the Irish and those who wish they were,” he said.

At Sydney’s Lansdowne Club lunch on March 19, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally revealed her own Irish heritage and spoke with affection of the ties that bind the two countries.

“The trade between our two countries is now valued at around $2.5bn per year, and that in itself is a testament to the strength of our relationship. But today we celebrate so much more than just trade.

“We have so many unique ties of friendship that bind our countries together in spirit, and that is something we enjoy celebrating each year on St Patrick’s Day.”

Ms Keneally was joined at the lunch by her husband’s uncle, acclaimed author Thomas Keneally.

Meanwhile, in the NSW upper house on St Patrick’s Day, Lynda Voltz (Labor) noted that: “In Australia, St Patrick’s Day celebrations have taken place on March 17 since 1810, when the then Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, declared the date an official day of celebration for the Irish and those of Irish heritage.”

The house also commended the efforts of the Irish-Australian community volunteers who work tirelessly to organise St Patrick’s Day celebrations throughout Australia.

There was a touch of humour later on in the upper house when Greg Donnelly (Labor) jokingly referred to his party colleague Tony Kelly as “the Minister for St Patrick’s Day”.

Duncan Gay (NSW leader of the Nationals) had no time for such frivolities though, and raised a point of order. “The question is clearly out of order. We do not have a Minister for St Patrick’s Day,” said Mr Gay.

Mr Kelly then advised the House of important work in commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Vinegar Hill, which took place on March 5, 1804 in and around Rouse Hill in north-west Sydney.

He said the battle “stirred a feeling within the people, a feeling that would, along with the Eureka stockade, self-government and the emergence of the labour movement, act as important signposts in the maturation of the colony into nationhood”.

St Patrick got a brief mention in the Federal Senate, too. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon (South Australia) said: “I feel as though I should get a ‘with deepest sympathy’ card from Senator (Barnaby) Joyce because of all the amendments he has helped kill off!”

The temporary chairman of the Senate, Michael Forshaw (Labor) replied: “You might get a St Patrick’s Day card instead.”

by Pádraig Collins

A graphic impression of what the Sydney Opera House will look like on March 17 when it is swathed in green light.

The Sydney Opera House will turn green on Wednesday, March 17 to mark 200 years of St Patrick’s Day celebrations  in Australia, the Irish Echo can reveal.

The Irish day was first officially recognised in Sydney back in 1810 when New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie provided entertainment for Irish convict workers.

Two hundred years later, thanks to a community-based initiative which the Irish Echo believes has been backed by the Irish Government and semi-state organisations, Australia’s most iconic and well-known building will, for the first time, be swathed in green light from sunset from 6.30pm on March 17 to mark the historic milestone.

It is a major coup for the Irish community and recognises Australia’s oldest ethnic celebration since colonisation.

Sydney’s St Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on Sunday, March 21, followed by a free Family Day Concert at Hyde Park.

Major celebrations are also planned for Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

by Aaron Dunne