The annual parade in honour of St Patrick will again take place on March 17th in 2011. The massive parade will begin in Dominick Street. It will carry on to Shop Street and the end of this great procession will be in Eyre Square.

This year's inspiration for the celebrations is "tribal". There will be evidence of a Nigerian Galway tribe along with a tribe of Norsemen. To add to the fervour we shall witness the people from the Galway Traveller Movement, original Irish bog people from Macnas and a display of snakes staged by The Brothers of Charity. Brass bands from the community will be heard at this wonderful festival as well as drummers, contributions from the Polish community. Amnesty International and an also on the parade will be marines from France playing music from Lorient, Galway's twin city in France.

Annually, people from all over the world flock to Galway to see one of the most popular and famous and largest parades in the country. The atmosphere of the parade in such a small area is electrifying and is witnessed by around 50,000 onlookers. Musicians and artists give this medieval city vibrancy as they entertain the crowds on the cobbled streets. The atmosphere becomes euphoric as they do.

In 2005 the people of Galway and their guests celebrated the 102nd anniversary of this amazing parade. As early as 1903 St Patrick’s Day was proposed a public holiday and 10.000 people watched the march. Today the numbers have obviously grown.

Who Was Saint Patrick?

There many tales and stories relating to him but he is believed by a leading academic to have lived during the mid fourth century AD. Pirates kidnapped him in his home country which was then occupied by the Romans and sold him as a slave. His age was only sixteen and he later herded sheep and turned to God for comfort before he was released from slavery and returned to the mainland.

Saint Patrick later made his journey back to the country of Ireland. He had had a dream that the Irish people needed him and wanted to bring them Christianity.

Patrick studied for a long time and went back to the Emerald Isle. He became a Christian missionary and brought the religion to the country, although there were Christians there already, by finding influential friends. He is reputed to have enjoyed being a writer, he enjoyed travelling and preaching and building churches. He was also a keen hill walker who stayed for forty days on the on Croagh Patrick during Lent.

There are some very fascinating Irish traditions relating to Saint Patrick's Day. The famous little plant, the shamrock plays a part. Saint Patrick used this three leafed little plant to convert the pagan people of Ireland to Christianity as a symbol of the holy trinity. The plant is known as the Lorica in Galway.

There is a legend that Saint Patrick had all snakes banished from the country but this is probably a reference to how he helped to banish paganism. He had many confrontations and discussions with druids and pagans and carried out his work in Ireland for around thirty years.

Saint Patrick is said to have passed away of March 17th during the fifth century. Oddly enough his first commemoration was in the United States of America in 1737 in Boston. The first official parade dedicated to him was in New York in 1766.

On his remembrance day everyone tends to say "Everybody if Irish" all over the world.