Nearly 700 sites in 66 countries around the world will light up in green tomorrow in solidarity with Ireland’s Saint Patrick’s Day celebration, the most ever to take part in the annual Global Greening.
The event, which started with two buildings in Australia and New Zealand in 2010, has been envisaged as evoking both memories of global friendship and a certain amount of merriment. It’s also designed to promote Ireland Tourism, and the CEO of Tourism Ireland made that clear: “Although St Patrick’s Day will be very different this year, Tourism Ireland aims to capitalise on the heightened exposure for Ireland around the globe on March 17, to ensure that Ireland remains ‘top of mind’ as a great holiday destination for bookings when the time is right.”
The first two buildings in 2010 were the Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland. This year’s merrier choices include an 8-meter-high Kissing Couple statue in the Netherlands, and a giant troll statue in Denmark. More conventional choices include several Irish embassies, Vancouver City Hall, New York’s Irish Center and the Paris headquarters of the OECD.
