Take your front row seat for the final day of St. Patrick’s Festival’s Dúisigh Éire! Awaken Ireland! Tomorrow on SPF TV on St. Patrick’s Day, there's a feast of Ireland, the real Ireland, for the nation to enjoy from the comfort and safety of their living rooms and kitchens from 9.30am ‘til late night. From a message with our First Citizen ‘A St. Patrick’s Day Message from President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins’ at 10.52am, to virtual tours, pageantry, marching bands, spectacle, fun, traditional sessions, storytelling and dancing. There'll be a very special visit to entertain the residents at Elm Hall Nursing Home in Kildare at 12.15pm and a feast for the ears and eyes with the Saint Patrick Show from Downpatrick at 3pm.
Brendan Balfe and Dave Fanning offer us A Treasury of Irish Voices at 5pm and Pillow Queens, Gemma Dunleavy and Adam Mohamed lift the roof of the Guinness Storehouse at 6.30pm. We’re off to Whelan’s at 8pm for Barróg Lá Fhéile Phádraig, which gathers the best of Irish traditional players and singers. At 8.55pm it's Solas: Awakening Ireland, the premiere of a magnificent short film which illuminates Ireland’s most beautiful rural landscapes and urban vistas in a spectacular lighting display, followed by a 9pm concert with pop princess Soulé recorded at The Complex, Dublin. We bid farewell to St. Patrick’s Day 2021 for Orchestra of Light, at 9.30pm, a surprise spectacle, never before seen in Ireland, recorded over the skies of Dublin.
We can’t celebrate together but don’t forget the #RTÉVirtualParade in partnership with St. Patrick’s Festival is here to keep the whole island entertained on St. Patrick’s Day. People across Ireland and the globe will have the chance to share their home-parade with the world, using the hashtag #RTÉVirtualParade on their preferred social platform. Keep an eye out too for Virtual Grand Marshal, Tara Flynn.
Over on RTÉ 1, at 6.30pm, check out A St. Patrick’s Festival Celebration. Host Baz Ashmawy invites you to feast on many of the St. Patrick’s Festival events that have been broadcasting over the last 6 days and nights, as well as some glorious brand new work specially commissioned by St. Patrick’s Festival for this programme. Enjoy music from Soulé, one of Ireland's freshest young voices; watch a short film from award-winning performer Mark Smith; take pride in a specially commissioned poem from spoken word artist Stephen James Smith featuring young people from all 32 counties; Foil Arms & Hog bring belly-aching laughs with a new comedy sketch; a very special performance from the Hothouse Flowers, and so much more.
While we look forward to a time when Ireland commences the journey towards reopening, and prepares to welcome the world to our beautiful, vibrant, island, this year St. Patrick’s Festival invites all our people of every age to celebrate from home, in support of the tireless work of our healthcare warriors and our frontline workers, who battle on every day to protect our people and lead us out of the pandemic.
St. Patrick’s Festival events can be watched on St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV), a dedicated online TV channel at stpatricksfestival.ie and on TVs across Ireland on Oireachtas TV, which can be found on all TV provider platforms. Oireachtas TV is available throughout Ireland on Saorview Channel 22, Virgin Media Channel 207, Sky Channel 517, eir Vision Channel 504, and Vodafone Channels 201, 207 and 208.
