St Patrick's Day is celebrated in bars across London but the major event here on the day itself is a procession in the London Borough of Brent, from Willesden Green Station to the Library, led by the Mayor, local MPs and other dignitaries, and of course St Patrick. The Irish community in London were joined by many others to celebrate the day. London, United Kingdom. 17/03/2010
The London Borough of Brent, one of England's most diverse boroughs with the highest proportion of Irish residents in this country, celebrates St Patrick's Day on March 17 each year with a parade in Willesden Green and a series of cultural events at Willesden Green Library Centre. Various groups including Irish county associations, cultural groups, sports clubs and schools take part in the annual event, and local people, many dressed in green, line the streets to watch the procession and wave Irish flags.
It was a short procession today, but colourful and noisy, with music provided by the Birmingham Irish Pipes and Drums who marched in the procession as well as young musicians on fiddles, whistles and other instruments.
The programme at the library centre included Irish folk music, dancing, country music and a youth orchestra, and there was also a St Patrick's Day Market with Irish food and drinks. Several bars along the route were also doing good business.
St Patrick, probably born to wealthy Romano-British parents in Somerset, England, was captured as a youth by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland, from where he went to Gaul, escaped and returned to Ireland as a missionary, founding Ireland's first Christian Church in Armagh some time in the 5th century AD.
Although St Patrick's Day - March 17 - has been celebrated in Ireland for over 400 years it only became a public holiday there in 1903, and is observed in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. The first parade was held in Boston in 1737, and New York followed in 1766. Although there was a parade in Dublin in 1931, it was only in 1996 that the Irish Government began to promote the festival. The Mayor of London - then Ken Livingstone - began official celebrations of the event in London in 2002, but these are on the nearest Sunday to St Patrick's Day. The only procession on the actual day in London is in Brent.
