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Rome celebrates St Patrick's Day

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

14 Mar, 2019

Rome's Irish community marks St Patrick's Day on 17 March.

St Patrick’s Day in 2019 falls on a Sunday meaning that it will be a weekend of celebrations in honour of Ireland's patron saint.

The day is marked officially on Sunday 17 March at 10.30 with a Mass for Lá Fhéile Pádraig, which this year will be celebrated by Bishop Brian Farrell at St Patrick's church on Via Boncompagni 31.

The Mass is always well-attended by the city’s Irish community and friends of Ireland, who unite in a nostalgic rendition of Hail Glorious, St Patrick.

This year will be the first St Patrick's Day in Rome for Ireland's new ambassador to the Holy See, Derek Hannon.

Later that evening, at 21.00, the Colosseum will once again be bathed in green lights as part of Tourism Ireland's international Global Greening initiative, now in its tenth year.

The Irish embassy to Italy, at Villa Spada on the Janiculum hill, will also be illuminated in green, in addition to other Italian sites such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa and St Patrick's Well in Orvieto.

Rome-based traditional Irish music band The Shire play a number of trad sessions in the days around St Patrick's Day including at the Abbey Theatre on Via del Governo Vecchio on 15 March at 19.00, the Maulbeere in Centocelle on 16 March at 22.00, the Shamrock on Via del Colosseo on 17 March at 16.00 and later that night at the Nag's Head at 22.00.

If you plan to raise a toast to St Patrick with a pint of Guinness over the weekend, some of the pubs most favoured by Rome’s Irish residents include the Druid’s Den, the Fiddler’s Elbow, Finnegan’s and Scholars Lounge. Scholars has five bands performing live throughout St Patrick's Day, from the morning until the wee hours.

All of these bars will be screening the final Six Nations rugby matches including the Rome showdown on 16 March between France and Italy, whose coach is currently Italy's best known Irishman, Conor O'Shea.