London Celebrates St Patricks Day

[SteveDude]

Crowds celebrate St Patrick's Day

A Saint Patrick on stilts entertained the crowds
Thousands of Londoners have taken to the streets for the fifth annual St Patrick's Day parade.
Irish dancers, floats and bands wound through central London, while Irish band Hothouse Flowers performed in Trafalgar Square.

Water in the square's fountains was dyed green for the day, Irish food was sampled in Covent Garden and a Ceilidh was performed in Leicester Square.

Organisers say celebrations now rival those in New York, Boston and Chicago.
(Edit by Steve Dude...erm..I don't think so somehow????)

The parade left Park Lane and passed through Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.

"We have got such a great city because people get on so well and we want to enjoy all the parties that we can have"
Mayor Ken Livingstone

Among more than 4,000 performers were singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes and Brian Kennedy who is to represent Ireland at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Both Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern praised the event, which recognises London's large Irish community - a third of Irish people in Britain live in London.

London mayor Ken Livingstone told BBC London: "It's a great day out.

"It's not just St Patrick's Day, we celebrated Russian New Year in January, Chinese New Year and this year, for the first time, we will celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid in Trafalgar Square.

Edit: Don't you just love that line above!!!! Yet every year we are told we cannot Celebrate St Georges Day...the 'English Day' because we are racist, imperialists and we should be ashamed of our History!!!

"We have got such a great city because people get on so well and we want to enjoy all the parties that we can have."
(Apart from St Georges Day.... for the majority indigenous population)

BBC Link