St. Patrick's Day with friends 2007

St. Patrick's Festival was established by the Government of Ireland in November 1995.

The principle aim of St. Patrick's Festival, since its inauguration, is to develop a major annual international festival around the national holiday over which the 'owners' of the festival, the Irish people, would stand proud. It sets out to reflect the talents and achievements of Irish people on many national and world stages, and it acts as an exciting showcase for the manifold skills of the people of Ireland, of every age and social background.

As the one national holiday that is celebrated in more countries around the world than any other, St. Patrick's Day is the day when everyone wants to be Irish. However, it was a strange fact of life that the celebrations held in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day prior to 1996 paled in comparison to those held abroad, especially when one considers what an ideal opportunity the day represented to showcase Ireland and Dublin to the world.

We set out to seize that opportunity, and completely transform the national and international perception of St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. This country is bursting with the kind of creative energy, ideas and enthusiasm required to do the job. Our job has been to harness them, and make our national holiday an unforgettable experience for all.

Why was it started? St. Patrick's Festival was set up in November 1995 with the following brief from Government:

Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebration in the world
Create energy and excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity
Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations
Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new Millennium.
The first St Patrick's Festival was held over one day, and night, on March 17th 1996. With a little over four months in which to effect change, the main object was to demonstrate that changes were afoot and starting the process away from "just a parade". The live audience for the day was estimated to be 430,000.

In 1997, we dropped the word "Day" from our title and it became "St. Patrick's Festival", a three day event. The festival has since grown to become a four day festival and in 2001 is was enjoyed by 1.2million people.

Preparation for the first St Patrick's Festival used to take only 5 months, but with the growth of the Festival, it now takes 18 months to plan for Ireland's biggest annual celebration.

Dun Laoghaire

Dún Laoghaire is a town on the coast about 7 miles (11km) south of Dublin. Together with the splendid harbour and surrounding rolling hills, Dún Laoghaire is the ideal place to begin or end your journey through Ireland. It was once called Kingstown and before that the English called it Dunleary. Some people spell it without a space between the two words, Dunlaoghaire or even Dun Laoire, but we all know the way to spell it is Dun Laoghaire. Come in and have a look around.
With a very successful Dún Laoghaire 1500th, Monkstown's 1200th and the opening of Dalkey's fine Heritage Centre marking 1998, the coastal strip must have an effective body to promote its Towns, Villages and district as a single "resort area". Rising to this challenge, the business and voluntary sectors have come together to establish a new company "Dublin's Riviera" to oversee the various events and festivals throughout the year. This new venture will ensure that the area from Booterstown Marsh to the estuary of the Shangannagh River will take its rightful place as "Dublin's Riviera" attracting business and visitors to the towns of Dún Laoghaire, Blackrock and Dalkey and to our magnificent Harbour, coastline, parks and marine facilities.
Dún Laoghaire gets it's name from the Irish Translation, Fort (Dún) of Laoghaire. King Laoghaire was the ancient High King of Ireland before the Vikings arrived. When the English came they renamed the town Dunlary (Dunleary) to suit the English tongue. In 1821 it was renamed Kingstown by King George IV of England to honour his visit to the town that year. It remained Kingstown through Victorian times until in 1921, one year before independence, the town council voted to change the name back to the ancient Irish name Dún Laoghaire. The person most responsible for this was the Irish Martyr John Moran who was commemorated with the naming of Moran Park.

PLease, visit this page for more information: http://www.dun-laoghaire.com/

St. Valentine's Day

Really, we wanted to pass this day unnoticed but...:-)something inside said that we gotta cheere up each other! that who else will do it bu for us? we are only one on this green iseland. Thus, beautiful flowers for me and CD perfume for Hakan, and a cheese-care for the diner meal.
The ais smells of spring coming in. The sky is extrumally blues today, no clouds, no rains, like if the weather wants to bring us its gift too. I hope to get this weather at weekend too. But, it's ireland, lads! :-) it never happens!
Happy St Valentine's to everyone!

Irina