In 1962, 100 pounds of dye were added to the River, enough to keep it green for a week. The city continues to dye the river each St. Patrick's Day. To minimize pollution, only 40 pounds of food coloring is now used to keep the River green for only a few hours.
In the mid-Nineteenth Century St. Patrick's Day became associated with politics. Irish immigrants found themselves under attack in America. In 1844 a mob in Philadelphia burned Irish homes and dynamited Catholic churches. Laws were passed in Massachussetts forbidding Irish Catholics from holding public office.
As a show of political strength, New York's separate St. Patrick's Day processions joined together as a single parade in 1848. St. Patrick's Day became a day to organize a political community. Denied voting rights in Ireland, and faced with attacks in America, Irish immigrants formed a powerful voting bloc in America's cities including New York, Boston and Chicago. Civil service became a source of employment for Irish-Americans who were denied work elsewhere.
St. Patrick's Festival wasn't established by the Government of Ireland until November 1995.
The first St Patrick's Festival was held over one day, and night, on March 17th 1996. With a little over four months in which to effect change, the main object was to demonstrate that changes were afoot and starting the process away from "just a parade". The live audience for the day was estimated to be 430,000.
In 1997, we dropped the word "Day" from our title and it became "St. Patrick's Festival", a three day event. The festival has since grown to become a four day festival and in 2001 is was enjoyed by 1.2million people.
Preparation for the first St Patrick's Festival used to take only 5 months, but with the growth of the Festival, it now takes 18 months to plan for Ireland's biggest annual celebration.
Saint Patrick is known for driving the snakes from Ireland. There are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the "Holy Wells" that still bear this name.