DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland has called off its national St. Patrick's Day celebrations due to fears over foot-and-mouth disease, organizers said on Friday.
The annual national holiday on March 17, to mark the death of Ireland's patron saint, traditionally attracts some 1.3 million people to the streets of the Irish capital Dublin for a four-day festival of music, street theater, and parades.
"This will have tremendous knock-on effects, but it's the disappointment most of all," said Maria Moynihan, chief executive of Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival Board.
Ireland has brought in a raft of precautionary measures against the spread of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain, tightening defenses even further after a confirmed case of the virus in Northern Ireland this week.
St. Patrick's Day -- the largest event in Ireland's national calendar -- is the latest casualty in a long list of canceled public activities after most of the country's sporting fixtures were scratched following pleas from the government.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-IRELAND-STPATRICK-DC_TXT.XML
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One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com
The annual national holiday on March 17, to mark the death of Ireland's patron saint, traditionally attracts some 1.3 million people to the streets of the Irish capital Dublin for a four-day festival of music, street theater, and parades.
"This will have tremendous knock-on effects, but it's the disappointment most of all," said Maria Moynihan, chief executive of Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival Board.
Ireland has brought in a raft of precautionary measures against the spread of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain, tightening defenses even further after a confirmed case of the virus in Northern Ireland this week.
St. Patrick's Day -- the largest event in Ireland's national calendar -- is the latest casualty in a long list of canceled public activities after most of the country's sporting fixtures were scratched following pleas from the government.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-IRELAND-STPATRICK-DC_TXT.XML
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One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com