Birmingham’s Irish population annually attend Birmingham St Patrick's Day Celebrations which are open to all nationalities and usually spans over a number of days. Enjoy the craic, parade, Irish dancing, music and traditional entertainment. For those who have not previously attended the celebrations, why not mosey along to the next one, which usually takes place at the Irish Quarter, Digbeth, and see just what you have been missing over the years?

It should be noted that Birmingham St Patrick's Day celebration tend to span over a number of days, you know the Irish love to celebrate and it puts England’s celebration of St Georges Day to shame.  You will see pubs everywhere displaying St Patrick's Day celebration banners so if you are unable to attend Birmingham’s St Patrick's Day Celebrations nip down to your local, have a few Guinness and join in with the craic and fun.

Everyone loves standing and watching parades, especially the Irish watching the Birmingham St Patrick's Day Parade which goes back a very long way. It was originally started by the local Birmingham Irish community to reinforce their identity and to make sure of their strong links with their home country. The parade returned to its original route Digbeth in 1996 and has since grown on what appears to be an annual basis.

Each year, as it is Birmingham’s largest community event, it promises to be the best one ever, whilst being unmistakably Irish, the Parade increasingly mirrors the fantastic assortment of the Birmingham and the surrounding areas population. It has even been suggested that Brummies and even visitors for the day from the local Black Country areas are even considering changing their well know accents to that of the Irish for the Birmingham St Patrick's Day Celebration and also moving from their lager, bitter, mild and real ale drinking habits to that of Guinness.

The highlight of the festivities normally starts at 12 noon with the spectacular release of thousands of balloons from the fundraising charity Balloon Race.

This year it was perhaps the luck of the Irish that the sun came out just in time for the commencement of Birmingham’s St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Approximately 80,000 people, a good guess, lined the streets of Digbeth dressed in green and orange and waving flags ready to join in the celebration of Ireland’s patron saint in a party thought to be the third largest in the world.

This year’s parade was lead by ‘THE WALK OF CHAMPIONS’, six incredible Irish dancing champions plus, pipe and drum bands, the best of the UK’s Irish Dance Schools, GAA clubs, children with flags of the 32 Irish counties, samba drummers, beautifully decorated Floats, walking groups, classic cars, vintage motorbikes, tractors and steam engines plus Polish, Indian and Chinese community groups.

At 2pm, after an amazing show of diversity and colour, the Parade ended with an impressive massed band display.

As can be seen above, the parade starts in Digbeth High Street, before travelling past St Martin's Church & Birmingham Bullring, along Moat Lane and Upper Dean Street and into Ladywell Walk. It then turns up Hill Street before passing Birmingham Town Hall, crosses Paradise Circus, along Broad Street and completes it's journey at Centenary Square.

The Birmingham St Patrick Day celebrations can get hectic and stressful for drivers looking for parking opportunities, so be careful where you choose. Wheel Clampers operate on private land around Digbeth and many sites are prohibited from parking. Look out for signs warning of wheel clamping and vehicle towing, they may be high up and also obscured as these companies are after your money. Be aware that there is simply no such thing as a free parking space in the City Centre.

If you are going to park in a private Pay & Display car park, make sure you:-

Pay for sufficient time to cover your visit, very important.
Display your ticket clearly in your windscreen, the correct way up, so that it can be read.
Park inside marked bays.
Do not park in spaces marked as ‘Reserved’.
Do not park in spaces designated for the disabled, unless you have a valid blue badge clearly on display.
Check the terms and conditions carefully on the signs.

If you decide against driving into the City, you could either opt for a Birmingham Bus, a train into Birmingham New Street Station; or for those travelling from farther afield maybe even a plane trip into Birmingham Airport.

For those people who have never attended the celebrations we hope that the aforementioned information has whetted your appetite and given you encouragement to join in next year’s Birmingham St Patrick's Day celebrations.

Whilst the information we at Activ Birmingham have provided below is probably well know to a large majority of the Irish population, for the non Irish it is well worth reading to find out how the St Patrick Day celebrations came about.

The history of Saint Patrick's Day is that is an annual and virtually worldwide day of celebration taking place on the official date of 17th March. It is named after Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland. It initially began as a purely Catholic holiday and became an official feast day in the early 1600’s. It has, however, gradually become more of a worldly celebration of Ireland’s culture.

Originally, the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue, however, over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick’s Day grew. Green ribbons and shamrock, a three leaved plant, were worn in celebration of the day as early as the 17th century. Saint Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish and the wearing and display of shamrock inspired designs have become a feature of the day.
In the 1798 Irish rebellion, in hopes of making a political statement, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on 17th March in the hopes of catching the public’s attention. The phrase “the wearing of the green”, meaning to wear a shamrock on ones clothing, derives from a song of the same name.

It was in the mid 1990’s that the Irish government commenced a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day as a means to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government of the day set up a group known as St. Patrick's Festival, with the task of:

Offering a national festival that ranked amongst the world’s greatest celebrations, promote excitement throughout Ireland and the world wide Irish population via innovation, creativity, grass root involvement and marketing activity. Thus providing opportunity and motivation for people of Irish decent and those who, at the time of the celebrations, perhaps wish they were, to attend and join in the creative, significant and Guinness drinking celebrations!!!

Now you know as much about St Patrick's Day as the Irish!!!