Moscow:Moscow's Irish population was outnumbered more than 100 to one when thousands of people closed down the main street of Russia's capital for the annual St Patrick's Day parade yesterday.
Waving tricolours and dressed in green, the Muscovite crowd cheered and clapped as a parade featuring floats, Celtic warriors, marching bands, giants and locally-trained Irish dancers performed for them.
The Russian media was also out in force, with at least 10 TV camera crews capturing the colourful images.
"This parade is just as lively as any parade you would see in Dublin, Cork or Limerick," said the Government's representative, Minister of State for Education Seán Haughey. "There was a great atmosphere and lots of razzmatazz."
Although only about 200 Irish people reportedly live in the city, the crowd numbers were higher than last year, at close to 25,000, parade organiser Niall Keogh estimated.
There were also Irish celebrations in Russia's second city, St Petersburg, and in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where an official from the Irish embassy in Moscow met children who had travelled to Ireland as part of the Chernobyl Children's Project.