St Patrick’s Day Parades Cancelled Globally As Spanish bars on the Costa del Sol & Costa Blanca prepare to take big hit

PADDY’S DAY CANCELLED IN IRELAND, USA & WORLDWIDE SPANISH BARS REVENUES WILL TAKE A HIT

MOST GLOBALLY CELEBRATED NATIONAL FESTIVAL RUINED BY COVID-19

Ireland cancelled all St. Patrick’s Day parades nationwide including the famous Dublin Parade recently and the world has followed suit.

Other cities that have cancelled or postponed include Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Denver, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago.  Chicago, well known for its famous river dyeing event is being postponed with Mayor Lightfoot announcing “this was not an easy decision”.

Boston’s Mayor, Martin Walsh said in a statement that their top priority is “preventing any new cases” and just last night New York’s Governor Cuomo recommended “we have to postpone it” in an interview on CNN.

New York expected over 2 million spectators and 150,000 marchers.  The Governor when asked how the parade organisers took the news  he responded “not well”.  This is the first time the parade has been disrupted since 1762.

In London the main event is still supposed to go ahead on Sunday, March 15th at 12 noon.  It starts from Piccadilly ending in Trafalgar Square attracting 50,000 people.  The authorities are expected to announce the festivities will be cancelled or postponed in London, Birmingham and Manchester.

St. Patrick’s Day will be a major test of how much the coronavirus outbreak will impact America’s $13 trillion consumer economy and revenues in Europe, especially Ireland and the UK.  Americans were expected to spend $6.2 billion on the event.

Even in Spain there will be a substantial knock on effect.  The Mijas Foreigner’s Department recently issued a notice to say that their St. Patrick’s Day events were cancelled.  Paddy’s Day in La Cala de Mijas is the highlight of local Irish pub Biddy Mulligan’s calendar and their revenue will be sorely affected.  With people reluctant to go out it is expected many bars in Spain will be affected.

It seems that Irish eyes won’t be smiling this March 17th, 2020 but spare a thought for the New York suburbs of Staten Island and Queens.  They already celebrated their St. Patrick parades on Sunday, March 1st.  They surely must have had the luck of the Irish.