Since the late 1960s, the Civic and Festival Eucharist of St Patrick’s Day in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral has been the first port of call for the Lord Mayor of Cork and the City Council signalling the start of the national day in the City.  Also present each year are representatives of the Oireachtas, Cork County,  the Defence Forces, the Naval Service, An Garda Síochána, public bodies, business groups and voluntary organisations.

This year, as every year, the Bishop and Mrs Colton hosted a reception at the Bishop’s Palace for more than two hundred invited guests.  Among those guests this year were schoolchildren and their families representing the schools of the Diocese.  In this centenary year they delivered their ‘Proclamations for a New Generation’ which will be on display in the ambulatory of the Cathedral throughout the Easter season.  Every year too, the scout leaders and venture scouts from 2nd Cork help with the parking and the scouts do the washing up.

Here are the photographs of St Patrick’s Day at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral and afterwards at the reception at the Bishop’s Palace: