St Patrick's Day returns to Dublin this weekend for the second time in as many months.
The original festival and parade was cancelled amid fears of a spread of foot-and-mouth disease across the country.
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But two months later, this weekend's festival marks a return to normal, almost.
The three-day festival of street carnivals and fireworks is to culminate in Sunday's parade which, the organisers hope, will draw as many as half a million spectators.
It is hoped the international publicity for the event will mark the beginning of the recovery of the country's tourism industry which suffered along with the agriculture sector.
From preliminary figures for the first three months of this year, the Department of Tourism expects that visitor numbers in 2001 will be down 14 per cent from last year. The latest estimates put losses through cancellations at £250 million.
"What better way to spread the message that Ireland is open for business than with living proof in the form of images of people in colourful glorious costumes dancing in the street?" Ms Maria Moynihan, chief executive of the St Patrick's Day Festival, said.
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"The only difference between the programme for March and the one happening in May is the weather and a few changes to the running order," added artistic director Mr Dominic Campbell.
The festival kicks off this evening with a night-time torch-lit procession of thousands of transition-year students converging on the River Liffey.
On Saturday afternoon, there will be open-air performances of music and drama followed, in the evening, by a Brazilian-style samba carnival.
This in turn is followed by one of the highlights of the weekend - a fireworks display designed by the pyrotechnics team which spectacularly closed the last year's Sydney Olympics.
Sunday's parade of more than 2,000 performers will follow a route from from St Patrick's Cathedral to O'Connell Street.
PA