Last week saw the launch of St Patrick's Festival 2000, an ireland.com site.
It features reports from around Ireland and the world on plans for St Patrick's Day festivities, a database of details of events worldwide submitted by visitors to the site, video footage of past parades from as far back as 1931, interactive games, a discussion forum, and a chance to win international airline flights.
The parade and other St Patrick's festival activities in Dublin will be broadcast in live video on the site.
The site also features a free video greetings service. People can come to the Irish Times front office in D'Olier Street and record their greeting to a friend or relative anywhere in the world. The greeting will be made available as a RealVideo clip on the site.
The President, Mrs McAleese, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, have already recorded their video greetings to Irish people around the world. These will be available on the site from today.
An appointment to record a greeting can be made by emailing stpatricks@irish-times.com or by phoning (01) 679 2022 ext. 8700.
ireland.com has also launched a special Cheltenham 2000 section as part of its horse racing site, irish-racing.com.
As the racing world counts down to this highlight of the British National Hunt calendar, the site is carrying daily news and analysis.
Reports from the course will be published throughout each day of the festival, which starts next Tuesday, March 14.
Addresses:
www.ireland.com/events/st.patricks
www.irish-racing.com