Festivities set to continue

St Patrick's Day may be over but the festivities are continuing over the weekend.

St Patrick's Day may be over but the festivities are continuing over the weekend.

The annual Skyfest fireworks display takes place in Wexford this year with the spectacle set to begin at 6.28pm precisely tomorrow on Wexford Quays.

The highlight will be a pyrotechnic waterfall that will produce a 300m (984ft) wide curtain of cascading silver fire, the largest of its kind ever seen in Ireland.

In Dublin, fun fairs and carnivals continue at Merrion Square and Wolfe Tone Park; and on Sunday the Big Day Out offers a celebration of Irish street arts at the same venue.

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A literary treasure hunt is on at City Hall tomorrow with participants invited to discover Dublin's rich literary heritage while competing for prizes. To accommodate the event, Castle Street will be closed from 9am to 5pm

Elsewhere, some of the country's best-known names from the worlds of literature, music, film and theatre will be taking part in DublinSwell at the Convention Centre this evening.

Among those who will be marking the designation of Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature will be Seamus Heaney, Sebastian Barry, Roddy Doyle, Paul Durcan, Neil Jordan, Gerry Stembridge, Paula Meehan and Barry McGovern.

Tickets are still available for the event priced at €18, €21 and €25. See dublincityofliterature.ie for further information.

One of the country's most accomplished musicians Sharon Shannon will be presenting an evening of traditional music at the National Concert Hall tomorrow evening while the 20th anniversary reunion concert from the cast of the 1991 movie The Commitments takes place at the O2.

Recent winners of the Choice Music Prize Album of 2010 award, Two Door Cinema Club are performing at the Olympia Theatre tonight and tomorrow while nu-folk act Mumford and Sons play a late-night gig at the same venue this evening.

Enrique Eglesias is appearing at the 02 in Dublin this evening before travelling on to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast tomorrow. Others acts appearing in both cities over the weekend include prog-rockers Jethro Tull and indie act The Wombats.

The Grand Canal Theatre celebrates its first birthday this weekend with the Russian State Ballet, who will be performing Giselle tonight and tomorrow and Swan Lake on Sunday.

The International Band Parade in Limerick will take place on Sunday from midday to 2pm with up to 30,000 people expected to attend. The parade will start on O'Connell Ave, before travelling towards The Crescent, O'Connell St, Patrick St and Bank Place and traffic restrictions will be in place.

Up to 3,000 people are expected to attend the St Patrick’s Festival 5K Road Race which takes place from midday at Dawson St on Sunday.

The race will start on Dawson St, before continuing onto St Stephen’s Green North, Merrion Row, Baggot St, around Fitzwilliam Square and onto Herbert St, Herbert Place, Leeson St Bridge, Grand Canal, Adelaide Rd, Earlsfort Terrace, around St Stephen’s Green and finishing up again on Dawson St.

To accommodate this event Dawson St will be closed from 10am to 1pm. At midday gardai will implement rolling road closures along the route of the parade.

Staying on the sporting front and Ireland take on England in the Six Nations at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow in a game which kicks off at 5pm. There is also racing on at Gowran Racecourse in Co Kilkenny tomorrow and at Mallow and the Curragh on Sunday and plenty of GAA action as well.

For those looking to get away from it all the Mind Body Spirit exhibition is on at the RDS until Sunday and delays can be expected through Ballsbridge and Sandymount as a result.

Met Éireann is forecasting a mixed weekend weather-wise. It will be mostly dry tonight with the possibility of widespread frost and a few mist of fog patches. Rain will spread from the southwest tomorrow leading to scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the evening.

After a dull start on Sunday, most areas will become brighter and mostly dry with maximum temperatures increasing to between 11 and 15 degrees.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist