Pubs get in on act as the world goes green for St Patrick’s Day!

There’s no better place to celebrate St Patrick’s Day than in Ireland but with  no overseas visitors, Tourism Ireland is bringing a taste of our homespun charms to people all around the world.

‘St Patrick’s Day at Home with Tourism Ireland’ will be a 90-minute broadcast on the evening of 17 March – from three of the best-loved bars in Belfast, Dublin and Dingle.

Hosted by TV presenter Bláithnaid Ní Chofaigh, the event will be livestreamed on social media from the Duke of York in Belfast, Johnnie Fox’s pub in the Dublin Mountains, and Dick Mack’s in Dingle.

Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, said: “This St Patrick’s Day, we’re bringing the celebrations into the homes of the Irish community and friends of Ireland around the globe.

“Our message is that we can’t wait to roll out the green carpet and welcome our overseas visitors back to the island of Ireland, as soon as the time is right.”

The night of celebration hope to give the diaspora and friends of Ireland around the world the chance to celebrate St Patrick’s Day from the comfort of their own homes and features all the elements of a typical night out, with a huge welcome, traditional and modern Irish music and dance and, of course, great craic – with every minute streamed through  Tourism Ireland’s Facebook and YouTube channels, as well as on Ireland.com.

Watch teaser video for the event:

Things kick off at at Johnnie Fox’s, above, the highest pub in Ireland, with a performance by the Celtic Drummers.

A master brewer from the Guinness Storehouse will then show viewers how to pour a perfect pint from a can and then it’s  over to the Duke of York, where the Shamrock Tenors, a new Northern Ireland-based five-piece harmony and multi-instrumental group, will combine their traditional Celtic melodies and modern-day vocals.

In Dingle, the broadcast comes from the legendary Dick Mack’s, where singer and songwriter Róisín O will entertain viewers with her beguiling music and voice.

Viewers will then join Denise Chaila and Sharon Shannon at the Cliffs of Moher, for a fantastic fusion of traditional Irish music and dance with modern-day Irish rap.

And the world is ready to celebrate, with Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative for St Patrick’s Day delivering some quirky 2021 additions.

Perhaps the quirkiest of all is happening the Tilted Sauna, also known as the ‘Drunken Sauna’, an abandoned sauna on its side on Tampaja Lake, in southern Finland.

The global greening started back in 2010, when just the Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland changed hue,  and this year around 670 sites in 66 different countries are signed up to take part.

As well as the Tilted Sauna, other quirky ‘Greenings’ this year include:

• Bjarke Cirkelsten in Denmark – a giant troll sculpture made from re-cycled wood, created by Copenhagen-based artist Thomas Dambo.
• a unique sauna cabin in the SkyWheel Helsinki where people can sweat and see the city sights at the same time!
• Jääsauna 52 – the first ever ice sauna in Tampere, Finland; the sauna’s 50-cm thick walls are made from the frozen water of local lakes and never melt, as the intense cold refreezes everything after use!
• a Volkswagen Beetle in the Volkswagen museum in Germany, which was built in Ireland in 1949.
• the Sekenani Gate – the main gate to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, in Kenya.
• a giant Kissing Couple XXXL statue located along the bicycle route between Amsterdam and Zaandam; the male is 8.6 metres high and the female is 8.1 metres high.
• a huge Smurf Statue in central Brussels.
• a solar giraffe – a solar power-generating structure in the shape of a giraffe, that provides power for the community of Mangunze, in Mozambique.
• ‘Mac the Moose’ in the city of Moose Jaw, in Saskatchewan, Canada – a steel and concrete sculpture of a moose, standing 32 feet tall.
• Le Dragon de Calais – a dragon machine in Calais, in northern France, that can breathe fire, water and diffuse mist; it weighs 72 tonnes, is 25 metres long and 15 metres high!

‘St Patrick’s Day at Home with Tourism Ireland’ will be livestreamed on 17 March in Great Britain and Mainland Europe at 19:00-20:30; and in North America at 21:30-23:00.