FIRST MINISTER Ian Paisley was among the first to celebrate Ireland's national holiday when he attended a special Ulster-Scots St Patrick's Day breakfast yesterday.
The fourth annual St Patrick's Day breakfast organised by the Ullans Academy and Co-operation Ireland was held at the La Mon Hotel near Belfast.
Rev Sister Prof Briege Valley and a group of residents from Finglas, north Dublin, joined the DUP leader, who was guest speaker at the event. Other guests included a wide cross-section of people from the political, educational, cultural and business communities.
Dr Paisley used the occasion to announce that he would not be accompanying Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to Washington for the traditional St Patrick's Day celebrations at the White House because of the imminent visit by Queen Elizabeth.
"Her majesty, the Queen, will be in the province next week and it is my duty under protocol not to be out of the country," said Dr Paisley.
The royal itinerary next week is not known except for a visit to Armagh on Holy Thursday.
The DUP leader, who announced last Tuesday that he would be standing down in May, also refused to reply to journalists' enquiries as to whether he had been forced in his decision: "I am not going to discuss what was done.
"I don't think you, even with your weight, could push me if I don't want to go," he told UTV.
Belfast schoolchildren from the Holy Cross and Wheatfield primary schools in Ardoyne made a public display of unity seven years after a loyalist protest made world headlines.
One of their teachers said, "These are new children coming in. They have no memories of anything that happened, they have no bad memories of coming to school.
"They are the future, and that's what we ought to concentrate on," she added.