Connections has been announced as the theme of this year's St Patrick's Festival, Dublin, which kicks off tomorrow and runs until 20 March.
As well as familiar events like the St Patrick's Festival parade, this year's event also features a 'Festival Quarter' at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, featuring daytime and nighttime events including live music, artistic performances, comedy and a food and craft village.
All day-time events are free, some evening events require tickets and all information can be found on stpatricksfestival.ie.
The parade in Dublin is taking place for the first time in three years, and organisers say that the festival invites Ireland and the world to reconnect in Dublin after the "unparalleled challenges of recent years".
Assistant Garda Commissioner Anne Marie Cagney has said that gardaí will be working hard throughout the festival to keep people safe and make sure events are family friend.
She said there will be an extensive policing plan in place across the city and she appealed to parade goers to arrive early and follow the instructions of gardaí and stewards.
Assistant Commissioner Cagney said gardaí will be enforcing restrictions on alcohol to keep public realms safe.
Gardaí are advising people who are attending any St Patrick's Day parades around the country to plan their journey in advance and arrive early.
People are also advised to select the area that they want to view the parade before travelling, mind their personal belongings and to keep children under close supervision.
St Patrick's Festival Director of Strategy and Public Engagement Aileen Galvin said they are "absolutely thrilled" to be back bringing "light and joy" to people after a challenging few years.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Ms Galvin said the advice to those heading to the parade in Dublin is to get there early and join in anywhere along the route.
She said the weather forecast looks promising, but she advised bringing warm clothing and comfortable shoes, and said ladders or stepladders will be confiscated.
This year’s parade will be "massive", Ms Galvin said.
"We’ve ten pageants this year, it’s usually just five, so we’ve doubled the pageant sizes, and we've 13 marching bands.
"There’s bands from Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and loads coming in from the US.
"We have some fabulous creative pageants and one of the key ones this year, which is brand new, is a gorgeous Waterways Ireland sponsored one that’s going to be on the Liffey.
"We’re building it right now and there’s going to be 11,000 live plants going into it, so that’ll be really spectacular."
