Irish at home, worldwide cheer St. Patrick's Day

DUBLIN (AP) — Much of the world is turning green Wednesday for St. Patrick's Day, the annual celebration of all hues of Irishness.

Half a million people were forecast to line the 3-kilometer (2-mile) route of the flagship Dublin parade, which is exploring the theme "The Extraordinary World." It is a nod to Ireland's increasing multiculturalism — as well as the past two centuries' global spread of the Irish.

This year Ireland also is pushing itself especially hard as a tourist destination as the country faces its worst recession since the Great Depression, with double-digit unemployment and net emigration for the first time in 15 years.

St. Patrick's Day is Ireland's first major tourist event of the year, packing hotels and pubs with visitors seeking an all-night party. Ireland's weeklong festival gets bigger each year, with more than 100 parades Wednesday in cities, towns and villages across the island of 6 million.

The Tourism Ireland agency wangled a deal for major world landmarks — including the Sydney Opera House, London Eye, Toronto's CN Tower and New York's Empire State Building — to be bathed in green floodlights as part of a marketing push on four continents.

New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade was stepping off on Fifth Avenue with New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly as the grand marshal. The parade also features New York's famous "Fighting 69th," whose history stretches to the U.S. Civil War. It was part of the Union Army's so-called "Irish Brigade," made up largely of Irish immigrants from New York City.

Gov. David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg were attending a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral before the midday parade Wednesday.