Saint Patrick’s Day 2015: Cities Going Green

Each year, for the past five years, Tourism Ireland has gone around the world with a big tin of green paint illuminating landmarks natural and manmade for Saint Patrick’s Day.

OK, perhaps it’s not a tin of green paint, it’s more than likely done with lights, but it gets the Irish party started. The greened landmark is a focal point for city celebrations and it acts, for the Irish diaspora, as a light in the window, reminding them of home.

Every year a few new landmarks get greened. This year the Colosseum in Rome, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee will go green.

Other sites going green for the first time include Porte de Bourgogne in Bordeaux, the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in Nashville, the Jumeirah Etihad Towers hotel in Abu Dhabi, the Town Halls of Munich and Bamberg, the National Sanctuary of Cristo Rei (Christ the King statue) in Lisbon, the Fram polar exploration ship in Oslo, as well as City Hall in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Old greenies include Niagara Falls (US and Canadian sides), the London Eye, the Allianz Arena in Munich, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, the Sky Tower in Auckland, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Cibeles Fountain and Palace in Madrid and the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland® in Paris.

Chicago is famous as the city where the river is dyed green, but the Chicago River is not the only thing.   Navy Pier, the John Hancock Center, the United Center (home to the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Bulls), the Wrigley Building, Trump International Hotel & Tower, Block Thirty Seven shopping mall, Old St Patrick’s Church and Macy’s department store all go green.   Special greening “selfie stations” will be set up around the city in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day – so that Chicagoans can join in the celebrations.  There’s a strong commercial reason behind the greening. March is a popular month for booking overseas holidays and the lit-up landmarks help reinforce Ireland as a potential destination.  In Ireland, since 2013, many high-profile buildings such as airports, city and council offices, railway stations, hotels and churches have replicated the international greening.

And of course millions of people dress up in their greenest finery like this gent in Boston:

Here’s the complete list of what’s going green around March 17. The first-time “greenings” are marked with an asterisk. And the pictures of the Colosseum, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and the Grand Ole Opry are what we think they’ll look like.

Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening 2015:

UK:

London Eye

Town Hall clock, Manchester

‘Armadillo’ (SECC), Glasgow

The SSE Hydro, Glasgow

North America

United States

Grand Ole Opry, Nashville *

John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, Nashville *

Empire State Building, New York

GREENing of Chicago

United Center (home of the Chicago Bulls) *

Block Thirty Seven (shopping mall) *

Macy’s *

Navy Pier

John Hancock Center

Old St Patrick’s Church

Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower

Trump International Hotel & Tower

Wrigley Building

Chicago Board of Trade

Novak Construction *

State Street

Canada

Niagara Falls (on both the Canadian and US sides)

Whistler, Canada’s famous ski resort in British Columbia

City Hall, Toronto

Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa

Cabot Tower on Signal Hill, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

Europe

Austria

Burgtheater (City Hall), Vienna

Wiener Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel in the Prater Amusement Park), Vienna

Skiwelt Söll (ski resort)

Kaprun Castle, Zell-am-See region

Belgium

Manneken Pis statue, Brussels (“dressed” in Irish costume)

France

Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Paris *

Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland® Paris

Porte de Bourgogne, Bordeaux *

Irish Embassy, Paris

Irish Cultural Centre, Paris *

Publicis landmark building on the Champs Elysées, Paris *

Germany

Allianz Arena, Munich

Town Hall, Munich *

Odeonsplatz, Munich

Olympic Tower, Munich

Town Hall, Bamberg *

English language school, Bamberg *

‘Lighthouse’ building, Düsseldorf

Neumünster church (built over the tomb of St Kilian), Würzburg

Town Hall, Würzburg

Irish pubs network

Italy

Colosseum, Rome *

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Norway

Fram polar exploration ship, Oslo *

Portugal

National Sanctuary of Cristo Rei (Christ the King statue), Lisbon * Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães, Caiscais  

Slovenia

Ljubljana Castle

Philharmonic Hall, Slovenia *

Spain

Cibeles Fountain and Palace, Madrid

Tower of Hércules (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Galicia

Switzerland

Rhine Falls, near Zurich

Australia and New Zealand

Town Hall, Sydney *

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney

Sky Tower, Auckland

Auckland War Memorial Museum *

And the rest of the world…

Christ the Redeemer statue, Brazil

Jumeirah Etihad Towers hotel, Abu Dhabi *

Burj Al Arab hotel, Dubai

City Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia *