A Roddy Doyle short story will be the inspiration behind this year’s St Patrick’s Festival Parade in Dublin on March 17th.
Brilliant, by the Booker-prize winning author is about banishing the black dog of depression over Dublin and getting the city's funny bone back.
Pageant and theatrical companies will base their parade entries on different chapters of the story to mark Dublin's designation as a Unesco City of Literature. Roddy Doyle said he jumped at the chance to write a story for the parade. "The opportunity to see something I'd written brought to life in such an unexpected way as part of Ireland's largest annual celebration will be very special," he said.
Details of the St. Patrick's Festival line-up were released this evening and include five days and nights of entertainment.
Wexford will host the National Lottery Skyfest on Saturday March 19th, when firework specialists, Pains Fireworks, will use 1.6 tonnes of fireworks and 6,000 pyrotechnic effects to light up the sky.
The festival will also see the return of popular events such as the Céilí, on St Stephen's Green on March 16th and the Big Day Out on Merrion Square on Saturday, March 20th. The Crafts Council of Ireland will be marking its Year of Craft by hosting a children's craft village at the Big Day Out. The council will hold free workshops where children can work with materials such as felt, pottery and paper.
Building on the literary theme will be a new event called DublinSwell – Words and Voices from the City of Literature. It will take place in Dublin's Convention Centre on March 18th and will include performances from writers such as Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Roddy Doyle and Sebastian Barry, and musicians Mike Scott and Damien Dempsey. The festival Treasure Hunt on March 19th will also have a literary slant.
In other events, musician Sharon Shannon will play a special performance in the National Concert Hall on March 19th while TradTrails will involve a series of one-hour long 'seisiúns' where audiences can join in with professional musicians. Street theatre, funfairs and Gaelspraoi events will be dotted around the city during the five-day festival. Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin said the festival was the prime opportunity to celebrate what it meant to be Irish and to showcase "a new, young, modern Ireland" that was "very much alive and well and open for business".
Festival chief executive Susan Kirby said research conducted last year showed that the 2010 festival added €50.5 million to the economy in spending by tourists and Dubliners.
