Happy St Patrick's Day 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Cork City, the second biggest city in Ireland. This is my second year living in the city and my second time seeing the celebrations for the Irish national holiday. The parade through South Mall, Grand Parade and Patrick Street was colourful, noisy and very well attended. The people marching through the streets were a mix of local cultural and sports groups and associations of new Irish as they are called; people who were born in other countries who came to live in Ireland.

I have a few pictures here showing some of the people marching in the parade. It was an education to watch all this go by - I would probably not have known that Angola's flag still bears the symbols of Soviet times. have a look out for it, complete with cog wheel, machete and a gold star. Apart from that you'll see a strange collection of images that represents St. Patrick's day for many people in Ireland.