The St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin today seemed, somehow, less the riot of colour it has been in recent years, writes
Elaine Edwards
.
Perhaps a riot of a different sort - the one that marked the planned Love Ulster parade on February 25th - kept some people out of the city for fear of a repeat performance. Or perhaps it was just the miserable weather that did it.
Winding its way slowly through O'Connell Street, the parade also seemed a little sparse, with fewer participants than in previous years. There were some gaps between the groups and marchers, harking back to the 1970s when less well-funded parades consisted of a few floats sponsored by security companies.
Marching bands from Massachusetts and Donegal trooped stoically past - at least they were (mostly) dressed in long trousers to keep some heat in their bones. Braving the elements with fewer clothes on, female samba dancers grinned painfully, their teeth chattering.
Green furry hats dotted the five and six-deep crowd. Most appeared to have been purchased from a certain store specialising in 'Irish' souvenirs of the leprechaun variety. Paper bags from the store littered the ground along with discarded coffee cups, crisp packets and plastic bottles. No change from previous years there, then.
There were many gardaí on the streets dealing with the crowds in good humour, their job policing the parade almost certainly a more pleasant task than was the Love Ulster event. Special pedestrian crossing points were in place at strategic points around O'Connell Street in order to prevent crowd crushes and surges. But somehow, it didn't look as though the predicted 700,000 revellers had turned up to celebrate St Patrick's feast day.
Tourists from all over the world mingled with the 'new' Chinese-Irish, Nigerian-Irish, Polish-Irish.
Mehreen Imtiaz from Clonee, Co Meath was also on O'Connell Street enjoying the parade. "It's good - but it's freezing!" she said.
Lisa Keele and Stephanie Willis had come from Iowa in the US just for the weekend. They too were shivering with the cold, but their smiles and painted faces said they were having fun.
By 2.30pm the parade had fizzled to a halt and the crowds began drifting home or to the warmth of the pubs.
Jeffrey Claustriaux and his friend Veronique from Belgium were visiting, appropriately, Veronique's cousin Patrick in Dublin. They smiled despite the rain. "It's just like in Belgium," Jeffrey said.