The first item on the agenda of any Irish organisation is the split, Brendan Behan said - and that's certainly true in Sydney, where feuding among Irish-Australians and their supporters means there will be not one, but two St Patrick's Day celebrations this year.

Lining up on the side of tradition and the Old Country is an organising committee which is holding this year's parade in Sydney a week early - on March 11th. This will be followed by a concert topped by 1970s performer Brendan Bowyer (remember the Hucklebuck?), with a $10 cover charge much disputed by the Irish community in the New South Wales capital.

However, a new group, backed by the New South Wales (NSW) government, is putting on its celebrations over the weekend of March 17th and 18th, with the slogan: "St Patrick - too good to have only one day".

That event, supported with $100,000 of State money, offers singing, dancing, food and markets in Sydney's historic Rocks area, where convicts carved out the beginnings of the British penal colony that grew into modern Australia.

The government-sponsored celebrations are free - and that's the problem.

"There's a bit of a war going on," says parade organising committee head Frank O'Connell. "These people are trying to get on the bandwagon of the Irish phenomenon."

The Rocks party could draw people away from the historic parade, run by volunteers, which has been going since 1875, says O'Connell.

"It's hard for us to compete with this other event, when they have any amount of taxpayers' money to throw around," he comments.

O'Connell is famous, or infamous, in some Sydney circles, for his recent remarks comparing the St Patrick's Day parade with the city's hugely successful Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. "If the poofters can do it, so can we," he said, sparking consternation.

But some leading members of Sydney's Irish community say the row may spoil an important opportunity.

"This is a chance for St Patrick's Day to become a celebration for all of Sydney," says Billy Cantwell, editor of Australia's Irish Echo newspaper. "It would be nice to share the day, not just keep it within the Irish community."

It is a shame the parade organisers see attempts by the NSW government to put St Patrick's Day on the city calendar as a threat, he adds. "It's an opportunity lost."

However, O'Connell vows that, like St Patrick, his committee will not be put off by a few snakes.