Americans wishing to celebrate all things Irish this St. Patrick's Day will find their party at the four-day St. Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin from Wednesday, March 16 through Sunday, March 20. Highlight events include a crew boating race on the River Liffey between University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin on St. Patrick's Day morning, followed by the Festival Parade through Dublin's City Center starting at 12 noon. The festival opens on March 16 with a late afternoon public dance on St. Stephen's Green and a Celtic music concert plays on the two evenings of March 16 and 17 in the National Concert Hall. From Friday through Sunday tented Festival Fairs are held in three Dublin City parks.

Inexpensive city walking tours of Dublin are offered daily, and a 5K (3.1 mile) Festival Running Race open to all runners takes place through downtown Dublin Sunday morning. A highlight event away from Dublin is a National Lottery SkyFest Fireworks show, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, on the Wexford town waterfront on the southeast coast of Ireland, following that city's own afternoon of festival events.

Festival organizers have complete information about many other events here. As of this writing in mid-February, airfare aggregators on the web indicated roundtrip airfares between New York and Dublin were still available for the St. Patrick's Festival week starting at less than $550 including taxes and fees.