Valletta’s main street will be turned into a sea of green on Sunday for the first St Patrick’s Day parade to be held by the Irish-Maltese Circle.
The parade is the “dream” of Circle president Mick Higgins, 64, who plans for it to become an annual event.
“I hope it can develop into an event that attracts visitors to the island like St Patrick’s Day parades in other countries do,” said the amiable Irishman, who has lived in Malta for 11 years.
The parade will start outside the Phoenicia Hotel in Floriana at 11.45am and proceed along Republic Street accompanied by the sounds of the San Ġwann Scouts Pipe Band. It will finish at St George’s Square, where traditional Irish dancers will perform on stage.
Music will be provided by Keltika, a Maltese group “bewitched by the rhythms and harmonies of Irish trad and Celtic song”.
Don Kinsella and the Aer Lingus Band will also be performing. Mr Higgins is unsure of how many people will turn up but he has had a good positive feedback and thinks the event has “taken on a life of its own” in recent days.
“We welcome everyone. You don’t have to dress in green, you can wave any flag you want, just come along and enjoy yourself,” Mr Higgins said.
St Patrick’s Football Club, the Breast Care Support Group, Hospice Malta and animal charity Paws Malta have all confirmed their participation in the parade.
Irish-themed St Patrick’s Day celebrations have grown in popularity in Malta in recent years, fuelled by savvy marketing by Guinness and the Maltese passion for a good party.
Mr Higgins said the two countries had a deep bond, forged when many Irishmen still served in the British armed forces and were based in Malta.
Both countries had deeply Catholic traditions, he pointed out, and their people were fond of celebrations and pageantry.
The Irish-Maltese Circle president, whose namesake is the President of Ireland, hopes the parade will show that St Patrick’s Day festivities in Malta are not only about the bars in Sliema and St Julian’s. That said, he may well enjoy a few drinks himself on the day... and he will do so in costume.
Can he tell us what he will be wearing?
“I’d better not say anything, in case my wife tries to stop me!”