Tourism officials forecast a record crowd for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, centerpiece of a weeklong festival celebrating Ireland’s patron saint.
An estimated 125,000 visitors are joining hundreds of thousands of locals at Thursday’s two-hour parade down O’Connell Street to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in central Dublin.
In his St. Patrick’s message the leader of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics, Archbishop Eamon Martin, called on the faithful to pray for Europe to provide a better home for people fleeing war and poverty.
Martin described Patrick — a Briton originally brought to Ireland as a slave, who returned to spread Christianity across the pagan island — as an undocumented migrant, too. “I ask you to pray for refugees and for all displaced families,” Martin said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Green or Orange?
If it is Catholic, it is green
Protestant is orange.
Originally, St.Patrick’s color was a light blue but was discarded.
Also, St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday in the middle of lent and until 1961, all bars and pubs in Ireland were closed for the day. No Guiness to be had
Boo Hoo…