Approximately 500,000 will attend the national St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin city centre this afternoon.
Starting on Granby Row by Parnell Square East at 12pm, over 4,200 street performers, pageant companies and marching bands hailing from Ireland and across the world will take to the streets of Dublin.
Roughly 100,000 spectators are estimated to have travelled from abroad to see the parade.
No tickets are required to attend the parade.
Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty will serve as Grand Marshall for the parade, six months after taking over the RTÉ chat show.
Parade Route 2024! #SPF24#stpatricksfestival ✨✨ https://t.co/GfvB3JwDC2 pic.twitter.com/vxGrZblnVJ
— St. Patrick's Festival 🇮🇪🐍☘️💚 (@stpatricksfest) March 17, 2024
Dancers and marchers will represent the Ukrainian communities of Dublin in the parade for the first time since arriving here as refugees in 2022.
The parade is expected to end at 2pm, with roads reopening in the hours following. The full list of road closures and reopening times was published by St Patrick’s Festival.
There will also be a Festival Quarter at The National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, featuring family activities, gigs and parties at night.
In Cork, the parade is due to start at Parnell Bridge/South Mall at 1pm and will continue along South Mall to Grand Parade to Patrick’s Street and will end on Merchant’s Quay/Parnell Place.
In Galway, the city parade starts at 11.30am and runs through Galway city centre for more than an hour. The theme for the parade this year is Olympics 2024 and will see up to 3,000 people taking part in the spectacle.
BT’s at todays media briefing with our Grand Marshall @PatricKielty 📸✨ pic.twitter.com/oCxbfEPS1y
— St. Patrick's Festival 🇮🇪🐍☘️💚 (@stpatricksfest) March 17, 2024
The latest and shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade takes place at 8pm tonight at the Compass Bar in Currane, Co Mayo.
Locals are encouraged to “bring your floats” and join the parade themselves.
Owner Seamus explained the parade begins at the back door of the pub before moving along the outside before ending at the front entrance.
“We encourage people to bring their floats and they decorate them whatever they want to put on them, and then there's prizes for the best floats or the worst floats,” he said.
Parades are also taking place across the world, including in New York City yesterday which saw 150,000 participants and an estimated two million onlookers.
