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LAST UPDATE | 17 Mar 2020
WITH THE CANCELLATION of parades and festive events across the country, many were left disappointed that they might not be able to celebrate St Patrick’s Day this year.
But it turns out that children across the country have turned to arts and crafts, painting and drawing pictures that even St Patrick himself would be impressed by.
We at TheJournal.ie wanted to showcase some of the artwork from around the country, and although we received a huge response and can’t show them all, we’ve included as many as we can below.
Happy St Patrick’s Day
Ava and Zoe O’Sullivan from Douglas in Co Cork sent us in this picture of the artwork they’ve put on display for all to admire, complete with an Irish flag and a shamrock to mark the occasion.
Lorraine Cullen in Swords, Co Dublin sent in this masterpiece form her seven-year-old granddaughter Ella Bonny.
In Lusk, Co Dublin, Amber and Emily have been putting pencil to paper to decorate the windows at the front of their house.
Amber, aged 10, said: “We can’t celebrate Paddy’s Day at the parade but we can celebrate at home. Plus I heard about this and I love art so I wanted to do it.”
Meanwhile, in Moate, Co Westmeath, Conor Dufficy (11) and Holly Dufficy (8) have been designing signs and shapes, along with messages for their neighbours, to hang across the windows of their home.
Their message: “We thought this would be a great way to let our neighbours know that we are thinking about them.”
In Saggart, Co Dublin, Leah and Connor Egan used their hands to create a shamrock and turned turned another window pane into the Irish flag.
They’re “hoping to get out and walk around the estate [today] and see everyone’s decorations, and we hope ours will make some kids happy”.
Five-year-old Emma McKenna and two-year-old Sarah McKenna are bringing the luck of the Irish to Castlegregory in Co Kerry, colouring in leprechauns and hanging them in the window for all to see.
Aoibheann aged 10 and Cathal aged 6 putting a Limerick spin on the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Here we see Aisling, Seán and Michael Gannon, 14,11 and 9 from Rathfarnham in Dublin enjoying their time decorating.
Harriet and Garvan in Dublin with a very important public service announcement on this unusual St Patrick’s Day.
Rob, aged 30, put together a lovely festive display outside his house with some recognisable friends from other holidays.
Lauren Macnamara age 4, giving her St Patrick’s Day display the thumbs up approval.
Six-year-old Senan Jones from Mornington, Co Meath went all out today for the St Patrick’s celebrations.
16-year-old Éabha entertained her three younger sisters, Saoirse, Darcy and Réaltín to decorate the family’s downstairs window in Dublin. Éabha’s detailed drawing of St Patrick takes centre stage in the display.
Along with the arts and crafts, ‘virtual’ events will be taking place all over the country today, as communities rally to ensure St Patrick’s Day is marked despite parades and larger events being cancelled.
To help make sure children (and adults) don’t miss out on the festivities, Twitter users have been encouraging each other to have a “virtual parade” online on Tuesday 17 March to enjoy the day as best they can.
The movement appears to have originated from a few different sources almost simultaneously.
Some individuals and organisations are planning to showcase their floats from behind closed doors and the #virtualparade and #twitterparade is already lined with this kind of content to keep the green feeling going.
Thank you to everyone who sent in pictures, we tried to feature as many as we could. Happy St Patrick’s Day!
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Happy St. Patrick’s day one and all!
Lovely to see children try to keep up peoples spirits at such a hard and difficult time for all. Happy Saint Patrick’s day to all, we Irish have come through worse crisis than this and we will prevail again.
Keep up the spirit kids, we all need it.
We did the same here, great idea. This situation has really shown me how resiliant kids are. We have cancelled Disneyland Paris, 9 year olds birthday party etc and when I asked the kids how did they feel about this, they said they understood and that the most inportant thing is to help stop people getting sick.
@Elaine Tok Tok: wow you raised them well should be very proud
@Elaine Tok Tok: Very mature and understanding kids, many adults could learn from them!
@Elaine Tok Tok: we also had to postpone our son’s birthday party. He’ll be 8 this Thursday, and is completely fine about it. We told him we’ll have a party when it’s safe to do so. Kids are so resilient.
What a great initiative!
Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone
We decorated ours too. The kids are so excited. Its heart warming. They had been looking forward to st Patrick’s day for weeks
@Motherofthree: Same here, kids disappointed but understanding.
Very sweet and back to basics. Irish spirit is truly alive
Nice to see. The current situation doesn’t mean we can’t have fun or enjoyment in our lives. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
A nice day for a long family walk in the parks or forests…just keep a safe distance from others. Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit.
Nice work Ella’s mom
@Ron Kingston: thanks Ron, Ella’s nana sent in her sent in her peoject and I can assure you that every bead button and butterfly was selected and applied be Ella.
@Lorraine Cullen: She’s a talented 7 year old, with way over the average age hand-eye coordination.
Fantastic way to inject a bit of normality into their new routines now!
@Nuala Mc Namara: Wishing everyone well this St Patrick’s Day & keep the solidarity going through this & let’s all play our part to’flatten the curve’!
In Athlone we had a car parade. Everyone decorated their cars and we drove through the town waving and playing music. There must have been over 100 cars take part. Kids had a great time.
We spent the day making signs for the windows too aww I love Ireland, we’re still smiling
Well done lads! Happy St Patrick’s Day
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