Aifreann Phádraig Naofa, the St Patrick's Day Mass, will be celebrated by Bishop Fiachra Ó Ceallaigh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, in the city's Pro-Cathedral tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, writes Patsy McGarry. President Mary McAleese will attend.
In the North on St Patrick's Day, Bishop Harold Miller invites different sections of the community to join him at celebration services in Saul and Down Cathedral. This year he is inviting people of different ethnic backgrounds who live in Northern Ireland.
Celebrations begin with a 9.30am Communion service in Saul parish church, where St Patrick founded his first church in 432.
Following the service, a 35- minute pilgrimage walk from Saul to Downpatrick will enable participants to reach Down Cathedral in time for the 11.45am festival service. The annual wreath-laying ceremony at St Patrick's grave will follow.
New Orleans parade
A New Orleans Irish bar which was badly damaged in last August's Hurricane Katrina is to mark its reopening tomorrow by again staging one of the shortest St Patrick's Day parades in the world, writes Liam Horan.
The owners of Fionn Mac Cumhaills were forced to shut when Katrina swept through the region. Belfast woman Pauline Paterson owns the bar with her husband Stephen and business partner, Stephen Collins.
"The parade is only 60 steps long. About 90 people will go out the front door and come in the side door. We have done this for the last four years since we took over the pub."