Paris rome and nashville going green for st patricks day

The Colosseum in Rome, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in the fabled district of Montmartre overlooking Paris and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville will go green for the first time ever for St Patrick’s Day this year, as part of the organisation’s sixth annual Global Greening initiative. The announcement of some of the world’s most famous attractions and sites going green to mark St Patrick’s Day kicks off Tourism Ireland’s major first half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2015.

Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening, which sees a host of major landmarks and iconic sites around the world illuminated in green for St Patrick’s Day, has grown from strength to strength, with a number of new landmarks signing up to take part in 2015. Other sites going green for the first time include the famous Porte de Bourgogne in Bordeaux, the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in Nashville, the Jumeirah Etihad Towers hotel in Abu Dhabi, the Town Halls of Munich and Bamberg, the National Sanctuary of Cristo Rei (Christ the King statue) in Lisbon, the Fram polar exploration ship in Oslo, as well as City Hall in Tbilisi.

The new sites will join some ‘old favourites’ which have gone green in previous years – including Niagara Falls (on both the US and Canadian sides), the London Eye, the Allianz Arena in Munich, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, the Sky Tower in Auckland, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Cibeles Fountain and Palace in Madrid and one of last year’s newcomers, Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyland® in Paris.

Chicago will be ‘going all out’ to celebrate St Patrick and Ireland once again this year, with numerous buildings and sites across the city ‘seeing green’ including Navy Pier, the John Hancock Center, the United Center (home to the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Bulls), the Wrigley Building, Trump International Hotel & Tower, Block Thirty Seven shopping mall, Old St Patrick’s Church and Macy’s department store. And special greening ‘selfie stations’ will be set up around the city in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day – so that individual Chicagoans can join in the fun celebrations!

TOURISM IRELAND’S GLOBAL GREENING FOR ST PATRICK’S DAY 2015

* first time greenings

Great Britain

London Eye Town Hall clock, Manchester‘Armadillo’ (SECC), Glasgow The SSE Hydro, Glasgow

North America

- United States

Grand Ole Opry (the show that made country music famous!), Nashville *John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, Nashville * Empire State Building, New YorkGREENing of Chicago

- United Center (home of the Chicago Bulls) *

- Block Thirty Seven (shopping mall) *

- Macy’s *

- Navy Pier

- John Hancock Center

- Old St Patrick’s Church

- Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower

- Trump International Hotel & Tower

- Wrigley Building

- Chicago Board of Trade

- Novak Construction *

- State Street

- Canada

Niagara Falls (on both the Canadian and US sides)Algonquin National Park, Ontario *Whistler, Canada’s famous ski resort in British ColumbiaCity Hall, TorontoCanadian Museum of Nature, OttawaCabot Tower on Signal Hill, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

Mainland Europe

- Austria

Burgtheater (City Hall), ViennaWiener Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel in the Prater Amusement Park), ViennaSkiwelt Söll (ski resort)Kaprun Castle, Zell-am-See region

- Belgium

Manneken Pis statue, Brussels (“dressed” in Irish costume)

- France

Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Paris *Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyland® Paris Porte de Bourgogne, Bordeaux *Irish Embassy, ParisIrish Cultural Centre, Paris *Publicis landmark building on the Champs Elysées, Paris *

- Germany

Allianz Arena, MunichTown Hall, Munich *Odeonsplatz, MunichOlympic Tower, MunichTown Hall, Bamberg *English language school, Bamberg *‘Lighthouse’ building, DüsseldorfNeumünster church (built over the tomb of St Kilian), WürzburgTown Hall, WürzburgIrish pubs network

- Italy

Colosseum, Rome *Leaning Tower of Pisa

- Norway

Fram polar exploration ship, Oslo *

- Portugal

National Sanctuary of Cristo Rei (Christ the King statue), Lisbon *Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães, Caiscais

- Slovenia

Ljubljana CastlePhilharmonic Hall, Slovenia *

- Spain

Cibeles Fountain and Palace, Madrid Tower of Hércules (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Galicia

- Switzerland

Rhine Falls, near Zurich

Australia and New Zealand

Town Hall, Sydney *Hyde Park Barracks, SydneySky Tower, AucklandAuckland War Memorial Museum *

Emerging markets

Christ the Redeemer statue, BrazilJumeirah Etihad Towers hotel, Abu Dhabi *Burj Al Arab hotel, DubaiCity Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia *