'Irish culture in a European setting': Celebrating St Patrick's Day in Brussels

The Irish community of Brussels will once again take over the Parc du Cinquantenaire next weekend for the annual St Patrick's Day festival, which was "supposed to be a one-off event" when it was first held almost 10 years ago.

The Belgium GAA club will be hosting the festival on 13 March in conjunction with soccer club FC Irlande, with dancing, culture, music, food, drink, sport and craic (fun) being the order of the day in celebration of Ireland's patron saint.

The first such event was held in 2007. "It worked so well it continued on from there," says Belgium GAA club member Jane Brennan, who adds that it is not just the Irish that come along to party: "There's a really good range of nationalities on the day."

Brennan says the event has been growing every year. "We have decided to aim activities at kids and families, so there’ll be races, dancing, bouncy castles and demonstrations of Gaelic games," she adds.

Festivities kick off with a parade, organised by the Irish in Europe Association, which circles Parc Cinquantenaire with the route ending at the site of the festival.

An event of this scale though requires a lot of advance planning. "Right after the last event we're meeting to discuss what worked, what didn't work, what needs improving and come up with ideas for next time," says Belgium GAA spokesman Paddy Donnelly.

"It's a good way to display Irish culture in a European setting," says Colin Byrne, Belgium GAA chairman. "You can have anywhere between 700 to 1,250 people showing up. If the weather is good then more people come and stay. It becomes a mix between an Irish and a continental-style festival. People will sit outside on the grass having a beer or wine, which we don't do in Ireland because we don't have those [alcohol] licensing laws."

Gaelic games such as Gaelic football, hurling and camogie will also be on display - giving Belgians and other non-natives not yet acquainted with these ancient sports a chance to view them first-hand.

According to Donnelly the first hurling match played in Brussels took place as far back as 1979. "We managed to track down a player from that game who is going to throw the ball in at the start of the hurling match on the day," he adds.

A new GAA club established in Leuven, called the Earls of Leuven, will travel to Parc du Cinquantenaire for a special St Patrick's Day challenge match against the Belgium GAA club. "It will be a Belgian GAA derby," Byrne says.

The St Patrick's Day festival is gearing up to be a typically wonderful Irish celebration, minus hopefully the typical not-so-wonderful Irish weather. It starts at 12.00 on 13 Match and entry is free. More info: www.facebook.com/BelgiumGAA

St Patrick's with a Flemish twist

Just outside Brussels, the Irish community in Kraainem is organising a weekend-long St Patrick's celebration in a Flemish style on 12-13 March at the Lijsterbes community centre, now in its third year.

One of the event's organisers, Paddy McEneaney, says: "The festival came about at the request of the Lijsterbes centre here. They decided they were going to look around to see how they could further integrate all the other nationalities that are living in Kraainem and they thought that the Irish would be a good starter for the integration for other communities, and here we are today."

Saturday begins with an Irish dance workshop, followed in the afternoon by a screening of the Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and Italy. The evening cabaret-style concert features live music from Carmel Dempsey and her band, plus plenty of Guinness, Jameson and Irish smoked salmon on soda bread.

Sunday's festivities begin a lunch with an Irish and Flemish menu on offer, a troupe of six Belgian dancers and a performance from Green Jacket, a Belgian-Irish traditional music group. Later in the day there will be a screening of the highly rated animated movie The Secret of Kells. Tickets for all the events can be booked online through the Lijsterbes website.