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The British Caribbean territory is the one place in the world where St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated as a public holiday for an entire week, not just on March 17. “The island is filled with St Patrick’s Festival in Monserrat. Thankfully times have changed. The modern day descendants of Montserrat are a mixture of Africans and Irish with a bit of English blood thrown in too. So their St Patrick’s celebration has a different meaning than it does in Ireland. It is both sad and happy and there’s a lot of eating! These activities were later centralized in the village of St Patrick's to give it a special day like other communities had, such as St John’s Day held every December 27. Montserrat’s first commemoration of St Patrick’s Day as a holiday was held in 1985. St Patrick’s Festival is a 2-week long celebration highlighting Montserrat’s African and Irish heritage. It culminates on St. Patrick’s Day March 17, which is a public holiday. Montserrat is the only country outside of Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday and it commemorates a thwarted slave uprising in 1768. There is only one place outside of Ireland that celebrates St. Patrick’s Day as a national public holiday: the island of Montserrat.The small pear-shaped island is about 40 square miles and is On St. Patrick’s Day in 1768, a group of enslaved people planned to take advantage of the plantation owners’ and overseers’ holiday drunkenness and revolt across the island. But word got out Join correspondent Tom Wilmer on the Caribbean island of Montserrat as he explores the isle’s Incredible Irish connection and how St. Patrick’s Day became a national holiday—the only country other than Ireland to proclaim it a national holiday. Re-shared as a best-of-best Journeys podcast. This Caribbean island is the other Emerald Isle on St. Patrick’s Day Known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, Monserrat is the only country outside Ireland where March 17 is a public holiday. A t just over 17km long and 11km wide, and tucked just south of Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat is one of the Caribbean’s lesser-known islands. It has all the usual draws you’d expect from a tropical island – unspoilt beaches, thriving coral reefs, rainforest-covered hills – but what may surprise visitors the most is its rich Afro-Irish heritage, which can be seen and felt all over the In fact, Monserrat is the only country outside of Ireland where St. Patrick’s Day, 17 March, exists as a national holiday. However, the reasons for the celebration of St. Patrick in Ireland and in Monserrat differ exponentially. Let’s take a look at the history of Irishness on this small island and how 17 March came to be a public holiday. More than 13 million pints of Guinness are consumed on St. Patrick’s Day worldwide. St. Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the Caribbean island of Montserrat. In Ireland, many families celebrate by attending church in the morning and enjoying festivities later. When we wake up on St Patrick's Day celebrations will already be in full swing on the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean. South of Antigua, the tiny island of Montserrat, with around 4,000 inhabitants According to Caribbean and Co, the 1768 slave rebellion in Montserrat was slated to coincide with the annual Saint Patrick’s Day celebration as while the British governed the island, Saint Graham Clifford tells the story of the tiny 'afro-Irish' nation that even stamps your passport with a shamrock When we wake up on St Patrick's Day celebrations will already be in full swing on the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean. South of Antigua, the tiny island of Montserrat, with around 4,000 inhabitants, is the only Did you know that the Caribbean island of Montserrat is one of the few places outside of Ireland where St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday? There is actually a week-long festival leading up to St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17th, with troupes from Montserrat and neighboring islands like Antigua and Guadeloupe. The island of Montserrat is the only place outside of Ireland or Canada to celebrate St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday. Every year on St. Patrick's Day, Montserrat, a Caribbean island St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Montserrat, where Irish settlers first arrived in the 17th century (Image: Valbaun Galloway Photography). Many places and people in Montserrat still bear Irish names like Kinsale and Sligoville, carrying the legacy of Ireland’s presence on the island, which began in the 1600s. The tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat is the only other country to have a public holiday on St Patrick's Day. dublinlive Load mobile The tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat is the only other The island is also referred to as a modern-day Pompeii, after a massive volcano eruption in 1997. FirstSt.Patrick’s Day: Montserrat is the only country outside of Ireland where St. Patrick’s Day is a public holiday (come on, U.S.A., join in!). When clearing in, your passport is stamped with a shamrock! The people of Montserrat remember a history of slavery and an Irish heritage through an annual St. Patrick's Day celebration, which lasts 10 days and is full of tradition.
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