St Patrick’s Day in Coatbridge, Scotland

Hello everybody! Today I have something special to show you. I was in Coatbridge, Scotland to see St Patrick’s Day Festival and was really happy to see all the bands playing, girls dancing and people walking in their fancy dresses. I love the Irish music and the drums, even if it was very cold today, it was worth coming to watch the bands.

Coatbridge is an urban town located on the eastern fringes of Glasgow, Scotland. The town quickly expanded during the late 18th century as a centre of iron making, in part because it had a direct canal link to Glasgow. Cheap unskilled labour was in large demand and as result the town became a popular destination for vast numbers of Irish arriving in Scotland during this period. One local historian estimates that 1,000 per week were arriving in west of Scotland at one point. Coatbridge today is well known as a working class town which has been described as “little Ireland”.

Majority of the Irish people came here during the famine period. The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór) was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine because about two-fifths of the population was solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons.

During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island’s population to fall by between 20% and 25%.

Coatbridge is especially noted for its historical links with Ireland. This is largely due to large scale immigration into the town from Ulster (especially from County Donegal) in the 19th century and throughout most of the 20th century. Indeed, the town has been called ‘little Ireland’.

The most obvious manifestation of these links can be seen in the annual St. Patrick’s Day Festival. 

St Patrick’s Day

The festival is sponsored by the Irish Government and Guinness. The festival runs for over a fortnight and includes lectures, film shows, dance/Gaelic football competitions and music performances. The festival is the largest Irish celebration in Scotland. I hope you like it. Bear with me I will upload more videos and photos for you to see. If you ever happen to be in Coatrbridge at this time of the year, remember about the Festival as it is a very interesting event to watch and take part.

Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, “the Day of the Festival of Patrick”), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

Lovely Irish man

Saint Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, as well as celebrating theheritage and culture of the Irish in general. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilithe, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. Christians also attend church services and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday’s tradition of alcohol consumption.

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Saint Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province ofNewfoundland and Labrador, and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Green man

Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, “the Day of the Festival of Patrick”), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

Saint Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, as well as celebrating theheritage and culture of the Irish in general. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilithe, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. Christians also attend church services and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday’s tradition of alcohol consumption.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province ofNewfoundland and Labrador, and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

More of Irish tradition, Irish dance.

 

 

Aberdeen, the Oil Capital of Europe

Aberdeen, is Scotland‘s third most populous city, one of Scotland’s 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom’s 37^th most populous built-up-area with an official population estimate of 220,420.

Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen’s buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which can sparkle like silver due to its high mica content. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe. The area around Aberdeen has been settled since at least 8,000 years ago, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don. The city has a long, sandy coastline. Aberdeen received Royal Burgh status from David I of Scotland (1124–53), transforming the city economically. 

The city’s two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east.
The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen’s seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world and the seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland.

In 2012, Mercer named Aberdeen the 56th most liveable city in the World, as well as the fourth most liveable city in Britain. In 2012, HSBC named Aberdeen as a leading business hub and one of eight ‘super cities’ spearheading the UK’s economy, marking it as the only city in Scotland to receive this accolade.

Aberdeen has won the Britain in Bloom competition a record-breaking ten times, and hosts the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, a major international event which attracts up to 1000 of the most talented young performing arts companies

Aberdeen is home to a number of events and festivals including Aberdeen Jazz Festival Rootin’ Aboot (a folk and roots music event), Triptych, the University of Aberdeen‘s literature festival Wordand DanceLive, Scotland’s only Festival of contemporary dance, which is produced by the city’s Citymoves dance organisation.

The Aberdeen Student Show, performed annually without interruption since 1921, under the auspices of the Aberdeen Students’ Charities Campaign, is the longest-running of its kind in the United Kingdom. It is written, produced and performed by students and graduates of Aberdeen’s universities and higher education institutions. Since 1929—other than on a handful of occasions, it has been staged at His Majesty’s Theatre. The Student Show traditionally combines comedy and music, inspired by the North-East’s Doric dialect and humour.

National festivals which visited Aberdeen in 2012 included the British Science Festival in September, hosted by the University of Aberdeen but with events also taking place at Robert Gordon University and at other venues across the city. In February 2012 the University of Aberdeen also hosted the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival, the longest running folk festival in the United Kingdom.

Glasgow

Come to visit the City of Glasgow in Scotland, United Kingdom

Glasgow,  George Square, Scotland. If you wish to see more images of Glasgow, click on the images and you will be taken to my photography website.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, it’s situated on the River Clyde, in the Central Belt on the west coast of Scotland and is easily accessible by road, rail and air. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians.

Glasgow is one of Europe’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities. It boasts world famous art collections, the best shopping in the UK outside of London, first-class sports and leisure facilities, a vast array of restaurants and bars, and the most vibrant and exciting nightlife in Scotland. The city is home to Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Lonely Planet describes Glasgow as ‘Scotland at its artsy, riotous, high-octane, good-time best’.

Just beyond the city itself lies some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery – ancient castles, lochs, glens and miles of beautiful coastline. There are some of the best opportunities for walking, sailing, trout fishing and playing golf. Glasgow is also only 42 miles from Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh.

2 Short videos I recorded last summer in Glasgow

And this one below is the longer one but it is not mine, so depending how much time you have check the one you like.

I myself love this music and the drummers 🙂