President issues message as parades take place around the country

President Mary McAleese has issued a special St Patrick's Day message. She called for the Irish people to be inspired by what she called "St Patrick's ethos of respectful tolerance", as the nation faced new social challenges and opportunities.

Thousands lined the streets of Belfast for the city's parade. The carnival took as its theme - Old Worlds New Dawns, and organisers said all cultures and religions were invited. However the unionist-dominated Belfast City Council refused to provide finance for the event because they said it was organised as a nationalist, not cross-community event. The organisers of the parade in Belfast have been granted a judicial review to contest the council's decision.

The people of Galway were determined to make the millenium parade the best ever, and it certainly was spectacular. Leading the parade in vintage style actress Anna Manahan, still playing in the award winning Beauty Queen of Leenane. There were visitors from France, Scotland and the USA. There were more than fifty floats and the streets were thronged form University Road and into the city centre. People of every age took part in the procession which lasted for two hours. There were bands of every description including Breton pipers from Galway's twin city of Lorient.

A bit of history was made in the Sligo parade with the involvement of 200 Belfast Protestants from different community groups in the city. They have linked up with a group in Sligo calling themselves the Belfast/Sligo Inner City Cultural Society. Spokesperson Caroline Newell from Belfast said they were delighted to be involved and felt St Patrick's day was a day for everyone to celebrate.

5,000 people turned out for the country's first ever St Patrick's Day parade on the River Shannon. Public Enterprise Minister Mary O'Rourke opened the Bord Na Mona Millennium parade at Lanesborough, in County Longford, as twenty five barges, cruisers and row boats combined with search and rescue units from all over the country for a two hour long parade. The highlight of the day was the presence of a Viking ship with sixty warriors on board in full costume.

Up to 35,000 people lined Limerick city centre today to view the annual St Patrick Day parade, the highlight of the city's Civic Week.

The parade in Clonmel today commemorated an important event 350 years ago, when in the year 1650, Cromwell attacked the town after taking Kilkenny. But the people of Clonmel, through ingenious defending and determination, staunchly kept Cromwell out. Banna Cluain Meala did their best to enthuse the large crowd, who were joined by the Mayor of Clonmel and the Mayor of Reading, which is twinned with Clonmel. The third motor squadron from Kickham Barracks in the town showed off their hardware, with one man showed he could drive his Fiat 500 standing up.