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Coronavirus dampens St. Patrick’s Day celebrations around the world

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By PETER MORRISON and JILL LAWLESS

DUBLIN — St. Patrick’s Day celebrations around the world have fallen victim to the new coronavirus — but even a pandemic could not quash the desire to celebrate the color green, Guinness and all things Irish.

Parades and parties were canceled around the globe Tuesday as governments imposed restrictions on human contact to slow the spread of the virus.

  • Tim Finnerty, the Grand Marshall of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, leads congregants out of the Feast of St. Patrick Mass at Old Saint Patrick’s Church in the Strip District in Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 14, 2020. “I’d rather be known as the grand marshall of the parade that was canceled rather than the grand marshal that maybe spread the coronavirus,” Finnerty said. The parade was cancelled by the city due to COVID-19 precautions. (Steph Chambers/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

  • Workers begin boarding up a pub in Dublin city centre, Monday, March, 16, 2020. All pubs in the Republic of Ireland closed late Sunday to try and tackle the spread of Covid-19. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

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  • A man dressed as St Patrick walks past a closed Temple bar in Dublin city centre, Monday, March, 16, 2020. All pubs in the Republic of Ireland closed late Sunday to try and tackle the spread of Covid-19. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

  • A man dressed as St Patrick walks past a closed bar in Dublin city centre, Monday, March, 16, 2020. All pubs in the Republic of Ireland closed late Sunday to try and tackle the spread of Covid-19. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

  • A tourist poses for friends at Temple Bar in Dublin city centre, Tuesday March, 17, 2020. The St Patrick’s Day parades across Ireland were cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19 virus. For most people, the new COVID-19 coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, but for some it can cause more severe illness. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

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Irish authorities called off Dublin’s parade, which usually draws half a million revelers into the streets of the capital city, and pleaded with people not to congregate at house parties. Thousands of pubs across Ireland have been closed as part of measures to fight COVID-19, tens of thousands of pints of Guinness will go un-poured, and 140,000 people who work in pubs, restaurants and childcare are unemployed, at least temporarily.

But even in a time of social distancing and self-isolation, the desire to mark the day bloomed.

Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, urged people to post footage of their improvised, isolated celebrations on social media. The hashtag #RTEVirtualParade soon became a riot of flag-waving family processions, pets in green, white and orange tricolors and children performing Irish dancing.

Peter Hynes, a dairy farmer in County Cork, southwest Ireland, assembled his family for a makeshift procession through the farmyard that included a child in a wheelbarrow, a calf, a pony, a quad bike and a young man banging a bucket as a drum.

“We just kind of grabbed whatever we could use as props,” said Hynes, who lives on the farm with his wife and three daughters aged 6 to 16. “We just wanted to fly the Irish flag around the world, because that’s what’s done on St. Patrick’s Day every year.

“We didn’t think it would get the reaction it did. But to see the messages coming from Italy and Spain and Australia, and people in quarantine — it just put a smile on their face. That’s all we wanted to do.”

In the U.K., London’s St. Patrick’s Day festival in Trafalgar Square was called off, and the government urged Britons not to visit bars and restaurants but did not formally shut them down.

In the U.S., New York’s giant parade was canceled for the first time in its 258-year history. Other cities including Chicago and Boston also scrapped their long-established parades.

Still, landmarks around the world, including Sydney Opera House, the London Eye and The Colosseum in Rome, were lit up in green as part of Tourism Ireland’s “Global Greening” project.

“We hope our Global Greening will bring a little positivity and hope to people everywhere and remind them that, if we all do the right thing now by following advice of our medical experts, this crisis will pass,” said chief executive Niall Gibbons.

In his annual St. Patrick’s Day message, Irish President Michael D. Higgins urged people to show “solidarity and concern for the well-being of our fellow citizens” as they marked the country’s patron saint.

“St Patrick’s Day has become a profound expression of a common history that extends far beyond Irish shores,” he said. “As members of that global community, we must commit to working in a spirit of solidarity and co-operation, joining with citizens across the world in fighting this global health emergency.”

Jill Lawless reported from London.



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