Tourism Ireland announced that 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.

 

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD; Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan TD; and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, are pictured at the announcement.

 

 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. As well as the Colosseum, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and the Grand Ole Opry, 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!