Amazon opera house among buildings to ‘go green’ for St Patrick’s Day

An opera house in the heart of the Amazon rain forest and the home of the Boston Red Sox are among the buildings that will 'go green' this year to mark St Patrick's Day.

Tourism Ireland on Wednesday announced the line-up for its seventh annual 'Global Greening' initiative to light up some of the world's great landmarks for the patron saint's feast day.

Other buildings to be given the green treatment this year include Nelson’s Column in London, 7 World Trade Center at the site of Ground Zero in New York, City Hall in Tel Aviv, the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, the Empire State Building in New York and the Sacre Coeur Basilica in Paris.

The Big Wheel on Place de la Concorde in Paris, Mole Antonelliana in Turin (the architectural symbol of the city) and the light rail system in Addis Ababa - the first light rail system in sub-Saharan Africa - are among the landmarks that join the list for the first time.

The Boston Red Sox baseball team will wear green jerseys on St Patrick’s Day, for their spring training game in Florida and their home ground, Fenway Park in Boston, will also be lit up in green.

Five sites in Brazil are included in the line-up this year, including the Amazon Theatre opera house in the Amazon rainforest, the Elevador Lacerda in Salvador and the Carioca aqueduct in Rio de Janeiro.

Minister for Tourism Paschal Donohoe said St Patrick's Day presented "a unique and wonderful opportunity to promote Ireland worldwide".

“From a tourism perspective, it comes at a perfect time when many people are starting to plan their annual holidays.”

Tourism Ireland estimates that this initiative and other St Patrick’s promotional programmes generate publicity worth in excess of €10 million each March.

Chief executive Niall Gibbons said he was delighted each year to see even more well-known attractions and landmark sites wishing to get involved and join the St Patrick's celebrations.

“The success of our Global Greening initiative is due in no small part to the great work that has been carried out across the world by Irish people down the generations and, in particular, to the great support we’ve received from the Irish embassy network and the diaspora,” he said.