Everyone seems to discover their Irish roots on St Patrick's Day. Among them, Aucklander Roger Norman enjoyed the "craic" with a couple of drinks at O'Hagans Irish pub on the Viaduct.
Even Auckland's Sky Tower turned a shade of green last night, but what is the real story behind this day which has become so widely celebrated around the world?
March 17 is the date on which Ireland's patron saint is believed to have died, and was originally celebrated in Ireland as a religious feast day
In Dublin, Ireland, an estimated 500,000 Irish people, immigrants and tourists lined up along a parade route to celebrate St Patrick's Day - a national holiday dimmed this year by an economic recession and rising violence.
Ireland faces its sternest economic challenges in decades. Unemployment has soared above 10 per cent, the government is imposing severe tax increases and cuts to combat a budget deficit, and the national mood is struggling amid rising emigration and violence.
Cardinals and bishops emphasized that the island's 4 million Catholics must pray on St Patrick's Day for an end to Irish Republican Army dissident attacks that claimed three lives this month in the British territory of Northern Ireland - and an end to drug gang feuds in Dublin that have left eight dead this year.
"St Patrick's Day provides a moment to reflect on the fragility of our times and our future - if we place our trust in egoism and self-centeredness," said Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
He called for everyone on the island "to send an urgent and unambiguous message that as one community, north and south, without distinction of belief or of political allegiance, we are united against anyone who takes the path of violence."
The parade is the climax of the six-day St Patrick's Festival.
In her St Patrick's Day message, Dublin Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne warned that the city of 1.3 million faced a growing threat of racist violence as the economy sours - many natives view with resentment the more than 100,000 Eastern Europeans, Asians and Africans who settled in Ireland during its Celtic Tiger boom over the last decade.
"It's been a difficult - for some devastating - year. And now more than ever, we need to rebuild our communities and our sense of solidarity," Byrne said.
The mayor said Ireland's national holiday posed the question of "what it is to be Irish in the 21st century (and) how we blend our old and new cultures."
She said that in too many areas, racism was a rising threat as Dublin natives "fear an erosion of their own set of traditions and indeed fear economic threat from those whom they perceive to be 'taking jobs' at a time of economic hardship".
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AP
Everyone discovers their Irish roots on St Patrick's Day
Roger Norman gets into the spirit - and the beer - with a couple of drinks at O'Hagan's Irish pub on Auckland's Viaduct. Photo / Richard Robinson
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