Space Needle among sites set to go green for first time on St Patrick's Day
The iconic Space Needle in Seattle, Chimo the Polar Bear statue in Ontario, and the fountains in London's Trafalgar Square will go green for the first time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Sydney Opera House will take part in Tourism Ireland's Global Greening initiative for the first time since 2014.
Details of the 300+ statues, museums, stadiums and towers set to go green to celebrate our national day next month were revealed today.
Other sites around the world that will join in the 'greening' for the first time include: the Wawa Goose monument in Ontario and the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat (also in Ontario), the National Football Museum in Manchester, the Palais de l’Europe (the seat of the Council of Europe) in Strasbourg, Beaugrenelle shopping centre in Paris, the beautiful Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Königsbau building in Stuttgart, Uilenburgersjoel Amsterdam, the Yokohama Marine Tower in Japan, Pen Monument in Hanoi, the Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa, as well as Vabaduse Väljak (Freedom Square) in Tallinn.
Chicago will take it to the next level with numerous buildings and places across the city going green including Navy Pier, the Wrigley Building and Soldier Field, home to the Chicago Bears and the venue of Ireland's historic win over the All Blacks in 2016.
Other favourites that will be taking part once again include Niagara Falls, the London Eye, the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland in Paris.
The global campaign to boost overseas tourism to Ireland, is now in its ninth year.
"The record growth in the number of tourists visiting Ireland in recent years bears testament to Tourism Ireland’s successful strategy of market diversification, implemented since 2014, and the Global Greening initiative is a very important element of this strategy," said Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin at the launch today.
"The St Patrick’s Day period provides a unique opportunity to promote Ireland on the international stage and to renew the strong bonds between Ireland, the global Irish abroad and our partners around the world."
We are delighted to announce details of our 2018 #GlobalGreening https://t.co/sKwcKBqm1Y pic.twitter.com/aJzhcBdUDc
— Tourism Ireland (@TourismIreland) February 13, 2018
"The eagerness of cities and countries everywhere to take part underlines the strength of the deep connection that people all over the world feel to Ireland," Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland said.
"More than 70 million people around the world claim links to the island of Ireland and St Patrick’s Day is a truly unique opportunity to reconnect them with their heritage.
