Northern Ireland

St Patrick celebrated at locations around the globe

Stacey Peterson and Kevin McGuire take a selfie in front of the green Chicago River to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Photo by James Foster/Chicago Sun-Times via AP
Stacey Peterson and Kevin McGuire take a selfie in front of the green Chicago River to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Photo by James Foster/Chicago Sun-Times via AP Stacey Peterson and Kevin McGuire take a selfie in front of the green Chicago River to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Photo by James Foster/Chicago Sun-Times via AP

WHILE dozens of parades took place in Ireland in honour of St Patrick, the patron saint was also honoured around the globe.

In Chicago, the river was dyed a bright shade of green - a tradition which dates back to 1962.

Grand marshal Patrick O’Connor said the move was to celebrate "the hard working Irish men and women" of Chicago.

Meanwhile, more than 250 sites around the world took part in Tourism Ireland's Global Greening initiative.

In addition to the big names going green - The Empire State Building in New York and the Sydney Opera House in Australia - there were some new additions this year to the programme.

These included the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in Canada, the Pen Monument in Hanoi, Vietnam and the Yokohama Marine Tower in Japan.

Other sites which took part included the London Eye in London and Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar took part in the New York St Patrick’s Day parade on the final day of his week-long visit to the US.

Before the parade, Mr Varadkar spoke at a breakfast event hosted by the Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio before attending mass in St Patrick's Cathedral.

The Taoiseach said the fact that he was marching in the parade with his partner was a sign of change and great diversity.