Galway:The Guinness Book of Records doesn't have an entry yet for Paddy's Day parades. However, if it did, Galway city and county would be in there with the fastest events this year, thanks to a combination of rain, GAA and rugby events, which kept all but the most committed spectators indoors.
In fact, sprigs of shamrocks weren't just drowned in the incessant downpours - the plants almost went blue with hypothermia in some parts of the county. Fantastical creatures such as fairy folk, leprechaun hunters, western world playboys, egotistical actors and the patron "saint" himself appeared. Guests of honour were two athletes, Síle McNicoll and Ciara Joyce, who will represent Ireland in this year's Special Olympics in China.
Among the many participants were the Galway Traveller Movement, Galway Filipino Community, Galway Circus Project, Galway Musical Society, and a number of city schools, while visitors included the South Uist Pipe Band from Scotland's western isles, the Lorient Pipe and Dance Group from France, and bands from Cork, Mayobridge and Dunloy. - Lorna Siggins
Down
The county town of Down celebrated the national day with a traditional parade, which was the high point of a St Patrick's festival built around cross-community involvement and inclusion. While the parade of dancers, musicians and colourful costumes may have been similar to parades anywhere in Ireland, the wider St Patrick's festival was modelled on the all-embracing and the inclusive.
Multicoloured bunting decorated the streets of the ancient market town and the many thousands who braced the strong wind from the Ardglass Road to Market Street waved purple and green Down council flags or the red cross of St Patrick.
Some young people in the crowd, including some from the new Irish communities, wore tricolours, but more opted for silly green hats, green and orange horns and stick-on leprechaun beards.
Live music blasted from a temporary stage near the town's multimillion St Patrick's interpretive centre and was relayed around the narrow streets by loudspeakers. - Dan Keenan
Sligo
It was a case of green, white and blue for the 15,000 or so hardy souls who braved the elements for the Sligo St Patrick's Day parade, where the emphasis this year was on community rather than commercial floats.
Over 20 bands,including 13 from from Northern Ireland, took part. The Belfast-based Friendship band made a return to Sligo, while German brass band Zeitvertreib won one of the main awards.
The festivities got under way in Sligo on Friday night with a St Patrick's Euro-music night, organised by the Sligo Migrant Support Organisation as a social evening for different nationalities resident in the area. Bands and musicians from Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Ireland provided the entertainment, while families were invited to bring samples of national cuisine to the event. - Marese McDonagh
Tipperary
Parades took place in towns all over Co Tipperary at the weekend to mark St Patrick's Day. However, Thurles did not celebrate until yesterday. "We have a better chance of having bands when we don't parade on March 17th", said organiser Tom Gleeson.
The Mayor of County Tipperary, Jim Ryan and former government minister Michael Lowry were on the viewing stand in Littleton,Thurles, where record crowds attended. There were also parades in Templemore and in Roscrea, where Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann entertained with traditional music.
Thurles nurse Therese Crowe was assistant to the parade grand marshall in New York, while Comhaltas groups from Cashel entertained the Irish in Singapore and Shanghai. - Tom Ryan
Laois
Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis unveiled a Famine and emigration memorial wall in the Co Laois village of Durrow on St Patrick's Day. The actor, best known for his roles in the films My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father has roots in the county.
His father, the former poet laureate Cecil-Day Lewis, was born in Ballintubbert, near Stradbally in 1904, but grew up in England.
The memorial wall is situated at Tae Lane, the site of a soup kitchen which dispensed beef tea ("tay") to poor and destitute people during the Famine. Following a talk on Famine and Emigration in Laois by local historian and author Dr Jack Carter, Mr Day-Lewis read his father's poem The Whispering Roots.
Mary Walsh, a member of the organising committee said they had decided to invite the actor "because of his connection to the area" and because they were "inscribing extracts from the poem which has an emigration theme on the wall". About 150 people attended the event. - Michael Parsons
Kerry
There were large turnouts in most towns in Kerry for St Patrick's Day celebrations. The country's earliest parade got under way in Dingle/An Daingean at 6am, where a record 32 people participated in the morning fife and drum march around the town. Killarney's annual parade started at 2pm, with up to 50 large floats and participants signalling the start of the town's tourist season.
Dogs were dressed in green and gold jackets and there was a large dance contingent from Utah as well as a Canadian trade delegation and the American Legion veterans. The town's Bangladesh community also marched. Large numbers of Polish and other nationalities in Killarney watched the parade.
The Sam Maguire Cup was carried on a jaunting car by footballing heroes Mike Frank Russell and Seán O'Sullivan. There were parades also in Tralee, Listowel, Castleisland and most of the smaller towns. - Anne Lucey
Donegal
The need for improved road safety awareness in Co Donegal was one of the mains themes of the St Patrick's Day parade in Letterkenny. Yet just hours before the county's biggest parade, its roads had claimed their fourth victim of the year and within 12 hours of the parade finishing, the death toll had risen to five for the weekend, and eight for the year so far.
Among the guests on the viewing stand was Supt Vincent O'Brien, who noted the number of floats that had a road safety message. These ranged from kids in go-karts to rally drivers and schools of motoring. "It was one of the themes of the parade, but the message does not seem to be sinking in, especially to young people between 18 and 24," he told The Irish Times.
Wet and windy weather reduced the numbers attending. The Danny Doherty trophy and €1,500 first prize was awarded to the Letterkenny Community Development Project for its float depicting the Flight of the Earls, to mark its 400th anniversary later this year. - Chris Ashmore
Southeast
Thousands of people attended traditional parades across the Southeast. In Waterford, former Royal Showband singer Brendan Bowyer, a native of the city, was honorary marshal and he joined the mayor on a reviewing stand.
There were parades in towns and villages throughout Carlow, Wexford, south Tipperary and in the Co Kilkenny villages of Graiguenamanagh and Urlingford.
A special pageant was held in Clonmel "to mark the meeting of the saint with St Declan".
In New Ross, the parade celebrated the town's 800th anniversary.