Around 100,000 people are expected to visit Ireland this week for St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Whether it is a small rural tractor run or a sold-out concert, there are events of all shapes and sizes.

Vintage Tractors in a St. Patricks day parade, Rush. Co. Dublin Ireland st. patricks day old tractor. Image: Sunshine / Alamy. 17 March 2018

Newstalk reporter Josh Crosbie met with those who have travelled here, and those working on the big day.

One traveller from Michigan in the US told Josh that the highlight of her trip so far has been the prices.

“Everything is so much cheaper than in America,” she said.

“Before we got here we saw videos talking about the price of housing and everything, but once we landed here, I’m talking like, the stuff that would normally cost me an arm and a leg is costing me like €20.”

 

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Artistic director of the St Patrick’s festival Aoife Carey said that day’s events have “a huge impact”.

“We have marching bands arriving from America and they’ve been preparing for the last two years to come over for St Patrick’s festival,” she said.

“We have groups from parade companies from all around the country, so we’ve got people as far up as Malin Head [in Donegal] coming, people from Cork, Wexford, Waterford – they're all on their way up to Dublin over the next couple of days.

St. Patricks Day Parade, Dublin, Ireland, 2011. Image: Bob Hurley / Alamy

“So, it has a huge impact, I mean we have a huge number of overseas visitors who come to Dublin specifically for the St Patrick’s festival.

“The economic impact on Dublin itself is huge, it goes into the millions just for the next couple of days, but then the wider impact that we have, we’re supporting a lot of arts organisations.”

Ms Carey has a busy few days ahead, as does everyone else working this bank holiday.

Josh popped into SEDA English language College to see a group rehearsal in preparation for the big day.

Creative director of the Outing Queer Arts Collective Eddie McGuinness said the group would be celebrating diversity and inclusion on St Patrick’s Day this year.

“This year’s theme is of course an adventure," he said.

"Ours is an adventure of love, the story of marriage equality, we’re celebrating 10 years of marriage equality in Ireland."

There are events throughout the country all weekend, with the national parade taking place in Dublin from midday on Monday.

Main image: Crowds gather for the St Patrick's Day Parade on Dublin's O'Connell Street in March 2012. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo / Niall Carson