Parading Multicultural Ireland: Identity Politics and National Agenda’s in the 2007 St. Patrick’s Festival

The Dublin St Patrick’s Day Festival Parade conjures in the popular imagination images of green-clad participants, groups of Irish dancers, and marching bands giving a performance of imagined Irishness. In 2007, however, along with the usual Irish school children, tidy town pageants, and Irish American marching bands which have dominated the parade since its inception in 1996,1 650,000 spectators came out to see Brazilian samba bands, African drummers, and a host of Irish and immigrant community groups. The Dublin City Council and St Patrick’s Festival City Fusion 2007 pageant, Citychange, addressed ‘the challenges faced and contributions made by the new citizens from all corners of the globe to the city.’2 The cultural diversity amongst participants was evidence of the Festival organizers’ aim to increase the presence of the ‘New Ireland’ in its parade.