ITALY:ST PATRICK'S Day in the Eternal City began early with the annual "Celtic Ball" kicking off the national celebrations last Saturday when more than 200 guests partied into the night at Rome's Grand Hotel Parco Dei Principi.
The day itself will be celebrated in a more sober fashion this morning when many members of the Irish community come together for mass at St Patrick’s Church, Via Boncompagni, home of the Irish Augustinians in Rome.
Representing the Government this morning will be the Minister for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher, who has already done his bit for Ireland by attending the “Celtic Ball” and a reception last night at Villa Spada, the Irish Embassy to the Holy See.
Later in the day Rome's Irish community comes together for two other long-established events, namely a reception at the residence of the Irish Ambassador to the Italian state and then a dinner at the Irish Pontifical College, followed by an evening of high-brow thespian activity, entitled Shamrock Holmes.
Whilst Rome’s Irish community does its best to honour our patron saint, this is not to say that the natives of the species ignore him.
From Milan to Palermo, “Irish” pubs use the date as an excuse to stage a vast variety of impromptu celebrations, most of which, inevitably, are more concerned with increasing revenue than honouring the national saint.
Typical of such gatherings was the event hosted by “L’Academia di Danze Irlandesi” in the Osteria Del Treno, Via San Gregorio, Milan on Sunday. Given that today is obviously not a national holiday in Italy, hibernophiles and lovers of Irish dance and music came together on Sunday afternoon for “San Patrizio a Milano”, a sustained “session” that was probably more Italian than Irish, but very popular for all that.