The St Patrick's Festival came to a sizzling end yesterday with Ireland's biggest barbecue at a children's carnival and family day in Dublin's city centre.
As events continued all over the State, including Cork and Limerick, the biggest was in Dublin where thousands of families converged on Merrion Square in the sunshine.
They enjoyed, free of charge, the children's play area with bouncy castles, climbing walls, clowns, stilt-walkers, storytelling, face-painting, circus workshops, acrobats, trapeze artists, as well as the popular Big Bounce where children in harnesses bounced high above the crowds.
The biggest queues formed for the free hot-dogs at the huge marquee in Fitzwilliam Street where 10,000 Denny sausages were being barbecued and the smell of sizzling sausages filled the air.
Music was everywhere and catered for all tastes. The concert on the stage on the east side of Merrion Square starred such acts as Zoo, Blink, Picturehouse and the Revs.
There were live bands at the barbecue, including a nine-piece band performing jazz and country music, and entertainment in the play areas such as the Blue Heaven Barbershop Chorus from Firhouse.
The Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, was there, too, in a marquee in which children were having their faces painted. Outside, they were having a go with great gusto on bongo drums.
Ms Logan said: "This is the perfect day for us to get our message across as we have children and families together in a safe environment and it is a good context for that."
It was a simple message about children's rights and giving a voice to children. They were giving contact advice, she said.
The Euro Show funfair, with the largest Ferris wheel in the State at over 46m (150 ft) high, also attracted the crowds.
On Saturday night, the Skyfest lit up the skies over Dublin and organisers say the Garda estimated that 117,000 people attended in the quays area.
The "Celestial Inferno" offered a psychedelic display of fireworks which lasted half an hour. The weather remained fine but this perversely created a problem. The lack of wind meant that smoke from the fireworks lingered over the Liffey so the view of the fireworks was obscured for some spectators on the quays.
Others had a clear view from vantage points outside the city such as the hills of Killiney and Dalkey.
Europe's largest annual fireworks display used 8,500 individual fireworks. The soundtrack was compiled by music producer Mark McCabe and included songs from The Killers, U2 and the Horslips.
In Cork, as part of its European Capital of Culture festival, a carnival was held for the two days as well as a festival of fools. The carnival included storytelling, readings, music, food markets and exhibitions on the city streets.
A funfair was also held at Emmet Place.
In Limerick, up to 15,000 people lined the streets yesterday for the international marching band parade and competition.
The colourful marching bands, which included several troupes from the US, paraded through the city from Sarsfield Barracks to King John's Castle.
Among the crowd favourites were the Roosevelt High School "Roughrider" Band from Seattle and Sammy Benson's Limerick City Brass and Reed Band.
The overall winner of the competition was the Clondalkin Youth Band from Dublin, which was the biggest band in the parade with over 100 members.
The prize for best overseas band went to the IUOE Local 94 Pipes and Drums Band of New York City.