A Guinness-sponsored Tradfest...Clearly not the mayhem the Alcohol Industry is bringing to our streets,if one listened to/believed Mr. Karney...

Why is England's second city spending council taxpayers money to celebrate a foreign nation's natioanl day.

I don't see the French celebrating Holland's national day. I don't see Dublin putting out the bunting on St George's Day.

I am all for the Irish celebrating it, just as the Chinese have there New Yaer bash, but it needs to be levelled with support for St George's Day.

I also find it odd that to celebrate Ireland's national day the PM and President of Ireland and other dignatories fly 6,000 away from the country to celebrate it in America. If you celebrate your country's national day why not celebrate it in Dublin rather than fleeing to a foreign land?

A mate of mine asked me what I was doing to celebrate St Patrick's Day last year and I said 'nothing, becuse I am not Irish' and he thought I was being moody. I asked him what he was doing to celebrate St George's Day and he said St George's Day is racist!

We are so ashamed of our own country that many celebrate that of others.

I might start a Bastille Day parade in Audenshaw.

To celebrate your Englishness is considered racist in England. If you are a white middle aged man living in England today you are onto a loser,just try going to a doctors, dentists, hospital, and see how you get treated by your fellow man/woman. Anything remotely English is frowned upon by the police,council or anybody in authority. I think it is a northern thing myself we seem to be afraid of expressing our Englishness for fear of being ostracized. DISCUSS

There is a massive Irish community in Manchester and has been for over a 100 years. They and their decendants are proud of their roots and should be free to celebrate that without the typical ignorant abuse.

Should the Eid celebrations be cancelled? or the Caribean Carnival? of the Italian religious parades? No!

As for ignorant Audenshaw Bob's comment, did you miss the St. George's Day celebrations that the council put on this year?? I know a lot of people didnt want to go because it has been hijacked by racists and tainted. So instead of having a pop at the Irish community in Manchester I would focus your energies on making sure the St. George's Day celebrations becomes one that everyone can enjoy without intimidation.

I Was at The St Patricks parade last year and St Georges Parade and enjoyed both of them, i regular watch them on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf3aKmYYGCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNHyHl4yb4Y it really brings the community together. i shall be watching both again this year. there is lovely films and photos on you tube, we should be proud of the culture of our city weather your English or Irish.
That link from the M.E.N takes you somewhere else. not to the Manchester irish festival..

I wasn't have a pop.

Celebrate what you want, whether Eid, St Patricks, Anzac Day - fine. But why is the Town Hall of Britains second city lit up green on Ireland's national day?

It is like me supporting Brazil when England play them. I know plenty of English who live in Dublin but don't see Dublin having a red and white Town Hall on St George's Day.

At work we have a canteen and they have Irish food around 17th March, Haggis for Burns night, curry at Eid etc. On 4th July they do an Inedpendence Day menu and I asked why I would celebrate another countries war against us and their gaining of independence and also asked why we don't have a St George's menu. The answer from HR, firstly I am apparently anti American for suggesting that (though Indepence Day can be construed as anti English!) and secondly to celebrate St George's would be racist and would isolate other nationalities.

I might join the Irish PM and get over to America. Must love Dublin so much he carts off elsewhere on the national day!

Audenshaw, the logic you use doesnt add up at all - you actually just sound bitter, twisted and confused to be honest.

A. "why is the Town Hall of Britains second city lit up green on Ireland's national day?" - because their is a massive Irish community in the city, it brings people into the city to spend money and increases the profile of the city.

B. "It is like me supporting Brazil when England play them." - no its not, is anyone trying to say if you celebrate St Patricks Day then you are not English? No! If you dont want to celebrate it then fair enough, you dont have to and to be honest who would want a miserable old git like you raining on the parade anyway.

C. "I might join the Irish PM and get over to America. Must love Dublin so much he carts off elsewhere on the national day!" - thats the second time you've made this stupid point. Its not like they are going off on holiday to America, the majority of the Irish cabinet travels to cities across the world who have St. Patricks Day parades to thank them for putting it on and to promote Ireland's industries on a day which brings a lot of attention across the globe to Ireland. Makes sense to me.

Like I said, if you dont like to celebrate anything that isnt "purely British" then fair enough but dont whinge about others that know how to enjoy themselves and are not so hung up!

Yep thats a nice cold pint of the black stuff awaiting you in County Levenshulme. But don't forget to bring The Family Mahone and your drums. I can still remember your last gig in the village with BBC Radio 1 for the festival.

Slainte

Audenshaw Bob, well said, you have some very good points, there will be some posters that will not agree with you and will not be able to, or are not capable of offering a respectful debate, therfore expect abuse off these types.

Well why not stay in Ireland and thank Dublin for putting on a parde and than all of the Irish there for their hard work over the past year?

It is like m daughter getting married and I choose to go to a distant cousin wedding in Chicago and toast my daughter from there.

Don't get me wrong I went to the parade in New York and it was great save from the money raising 'for the boys back home'. Left a bitter taste.

If the council went overboard for St George's then fair do's but I am not wanted in my own country.

I have always found it strange that 'An Táoiseach' jets off to New York/DC for Lá le Pharaigh.

Lá le Pharaigh has been hijacked by Guinness and now the town hall. As a non religionist I would prefer the Irish national day be moved to 6th. December.

Since part of Ireland is also in the UK, is this really a foreign festival?

were not a catholic country. why do you care about a turkish saint so much?

Audenshaw Bob, if you have no idea why Irish town halls don't change their colours to red and white during St George's day, then you are clearly ignorant of the sectarian and political history of England and its British neighbours. From my own point of view, English identity is a constant and is by far the most dominant on the British Isles...for pete's sake, all five British Isles nations speak English as do so many nations in the world. We prefer to wave the union jack over st george's flag, however the overall feeling is that the former is a symbol of English dominance over the other constituent nations of the UK.

Hence the reason why the fetes of minority groups seem to get more coverage. I certainly am English more than the one day a year that a few larger louts choose to wave flags in everyone's faces, much the same as the Irish. It's all superficial really, and I can't believe that you feel as if we need to rise to this. These fetes of various groups, therefore, merely serve to make sure that groups of differing or multiple cultural identities are given the opportunity to express themselves.

What you and so many fail to realise is that the English possess a unique and dominant position that is assumed in the everyday. It's called ethnocentrism, and is the reason why right wing newspapers annually run sensationalist pieces about the so-called contempt of St. Georges day. Each English region has a population greater than that of Wales, Scotland, and the entire island of Ireland and so I think it's fairly safe to assume that cultural variance will be greater in England, than in the other British nations and so therefore makes it difficult to define what is actually English cultural identity: citing the Northerner V Southerner debate as a classic example. I am from the North West, but I don't think I have much culturally in common with the Liverpudlians, Prestonians or Cumbrians as a Mancunian, nor with any Loiners from over the Pennines...

Audenshaw Bob: "If the council went overboard for St George's then fair do's but I am not wanted in my own country."

No, it's St George's Day which isn't wanted. You might not like it, but very few people care about St George's Day. In contrast many people, Irish or not, enjoy participating in St Patrick's Day events.

I don't see why anybody should be obliged to provide something that there is little demand for just to be politically correct.

This is getting to be hard work.

What I am saying is that it seems quite wrong that an English person with absolutely no connection to another country (in this case Ireland) will celebrate that country's national day but won't celebrate their own for fear of being branded racist. In England we are made to feel ashamed of being English.

If I choose to celebrate St George's Day then people look at me like I an some nazi thug. It is wrong and offensive to suggest such a thing.

I have lived in the US and Australia and no matter what background people are from those that live there celebrate Independence Day and Australia Day respectively. Nobody there goes on about Americans or Aussies being the ''ethnocentrism''. They live there, it is their country and they celebrate it without being made to be shameful, as well as their own if the are not indigenous. Perfect to me. Embrace everthing.

It is just very odd that anybody would celebrate a foreign country's national day but not their own.

As for the comment about St George not being from England well St Patrick wasn't from Ireland!

Read on:

Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius) (c. 387 – 493;[2][dubious – discuss] ) (Irish: Naomh Pádraig) was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognised patron saint of Ireland. When he was about 14 he was captured from Britain by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the Church, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked and there is no contemporary evidence for any link between Patrick and any known church building.''

So maybe I will raise a glass to this English Saint after all and celebrate his release from his Irish slavemasters!

'Slainte' or 'Cheers'.

And by the way I am serious about starting a Bastille Day celebration in Audenshaw. We will have Sacha Distel records, smoke Gitanes, drink Pernod and I'll get the lasses from 'Tanz-in-Here' to do the can-can down Guide Lane.

Audenshaw Bob...Dont forget that by celebrating Bastille Day in Audenshaw,you will be also honouring the 4 forgers and 2 lunatics being released back into the Community....Salut!

Audenshaw, like people have already said but you refuse to listen to because you dont like the answer - the reason people dont celebrate St. Georges Day like they do St Patricks Day is because St. Georges Day has been hijacked by ignorant racist bigots that considered "Englishness" to be an exclusively white commodity and it doesnt feel like a very welcoming or friendly celebration - thats the truth of it, its changing, slowly, but that where we are at at the moment.

People dont see the St Patricks Day celebrations in that way, its seen as a open and fun celebration that all are welcome to join in.

What you need to do is try and turn around the stigma attached with St Georges Day instead of attacking the St Patricks Day celebrations.

Yes, really what other country would celebrate another countries national day apart from countries that have been invaded, like May day was celebrated in eastern Europe by countries that were occupied by the Soviet Union ?

Once you have chosen to leave your country of birth and settled in another, I believe you should embrace that countries culture and everything else, otherwise why are you there (I include Britts living in Spain etc.) As for second and third generations who are born in a country but see their selves as and relate to the nationalty of their parents and grandparents, I find that really disrespectful. If I moved permanently to a country, lets say, in Europe and I heard one of my children who would be in that country discribe themselves as English, I would be devastated.

Are they going to have an Uillian pipe marching band, that I'd pay money to see

They will always be a cold glass of the black stuff waiting for you on the bar in County Levenshulme Mark. I still have found memories of your gig with the Family Mahone and the BBc Radio One banner proudly displayed in the village.

Bigorra!Can a cum wit me wellies an?

Audenshaw Bob: "What I am saying is that it seems quite wrong that an English person with absolutely no connection to another country (in this case Ireland) will celebrate that country's national day but won't celebrate their own for fear of being branded racist."

The major reason most people won't celebrate it is that they don't care, not concerns about being branded racist.

"I have lived in the US and Australia and no matter what background people are from those that live there celebrate Independence Day and Australia Day respectively."

Well you can always move back there, if the culture and traditions in those countries is more to your taste. You seem to want to "celebrate" England by turning it into something it isn't and never has been, such as reflection of the US or Australia. In any case, Independence Day is a celebration of successful revolt against perceived English oppression. As a nation, we've never had that kind of external control to rebel against and commemorate.

"It is just very odd that anybody would celebrate a foreign country's national day but not their own."

You're quite at liberty to find it odd, just as others are at liberty to choose what to celebrate. If there is anything that represents the positive in England in any meaningful sense, it is that freedom. It certainly isn't a situation where everybody would slavishly celebrate St George's Day, like it or not, because it is the politically correct thing to do.

Black Flag said "I don't see why anybody should be obliged to provide something that there is little demand for just to be politically correct."

There would have been a lot of interest a few years ago but we've all been told that it's politically incorrect to want a celebration of Englishness.

It's too late now anyway. England is sunk beneath the waves for ever. Bonjour and Salaam to the future.

when in Rome, good point.

When I was living in Australia I got into the whole culture. If Australia were playing New Zealand or India at cricket I would support Australia. I embraced the country. I wouldn't be out on St George's Day in Sydney wrapped in an English flag, getting leathered on English beer and telling all and sundry who woderful England is and who awaful Australia is. Here we encorage this behaviour from other nationas.

We shoudl all live as one rather than having different factions. I have many friends whose parents are Irish but my friends were born, raised and educated here. They support any other team bar England and consider themselves Irish and have even got Irish passports and use their Irish passports.

One has a complete loathing for England based on what he has read in history books and has been told by his parents. Born, raised and educated here but hates most of us! Crazy.

I am not against St Patrick's Day at all but again find it sad that many English feel so ashamed tpo be English that they celebrate another nations day instead. It isn't to do with a tiny minority of thugs who sought solace in the flag but down to political correctness.