REVELLERS BRAVED foul weather to celebrate the seventh official St Patrick's Day festival in the heart of London.
In a break from more overtly Irish acts, the headliner at the Trafalgar Square festival centre was international pop act Róisín Murphy.
Such was the pulling power of the singer from Arklow, Co Wicklow, that thousands of people packed into the square despite cold, wet weather.
Among those waiting were more than a thousand people who happily changed their name by deed poll to "Patrick" or "Paddy" to raise funds for Great Ormond Street children's hospital.
The Armagh-based Irwin's Bakery sells (or "exports", depending on with whom you speak) 15 million Irish loaves to British shops every year and was behind the successful world record challenge, raising at least £10,000 (€13,000) for Great Ormond Street in the process.
St Patrick's Day is not an official holiday here so events are staggered and official celebrations very seldom fall on the day itself. Outside London the festivities had already been held more than a week earlier.
In London the St Patrick's Day festival, while nowhere near the scale of that in New York, is a hard-won event, a fact acknowledged by Mayor
Ken Livingstone yesterday who praised the county associations who kept it going "throughout the bad times" when Irish people in London felt it wiser to be a little circumspect about their
identity.
As a sign of how much things have changed Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty joined other official Irish guests of honour on stage with Mr Livingstone including Minister for the Environment John Gormley and Ireland's Ambassador to the UK, the London-born and raised Irish diplomat, David Cooney.
As the parade made its way towards the square a lone heckler who shouted "God Save the Queen" and attempted to sing The Sashwas hurriedly ushered away by police.
At Covent Garden a Bord Bia-sponsored food fair did a roaring trade. A group of German-speaking tourists wearing Union Jack novelty top hats appeared bemused that so many others were wearing green.
Although Mr Livingstone followed protocol and scrupulously avoided any overt canvassing to be re-elected in May - and ignored the hecklers at the front of the stage booing him and shouting for his Tory opponent Boris Johnson - Mr Gormley looked forward to his re-election even though the Greens do have an official candidate, Sian Berry.
Mr Gormley said he looked forward to a re-elected Mr Livingstone working closely with the Greens in his third term and hoped Ireland would soon follow suit with a directly elected mayor for Dublin.
Speaking afterwards Mr Gormley said: "[Ken Livingstone] did tell me he would be working very closely with the Greens and give them key positions in his cabinet.
Two men suffered knife wounds at an Irish club in Birmingham yesterday as thousands took part in a city's St Patrick's Day celebrations. The men, aged 18 and 22, were in a stable condition in hospital after a fight at the Irish Centre, in High Street.