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A huge ‘Irish weekender’ is coming to Piccadilly Gardens for St Patrick’s Day
There'll be huge bars, street food stalls and live music on all weekend
A huge Irish festival is coming to Manchester city centre this month as the city gears up to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.
Piccadilly Gardens will be paying homage to the Emerald Isle with a weekend full of live music and dance, free-flowing Irish stouts, street food and more.
Irish dancers, pipe bands and Irish folk musicians will take to the stage in the middle of the gardens throughout the long weekend, whilst huge bars will have all manner of Irish tipples – from dry Irish stouts and Irish coffees to hot toddies and fine whiskeys.
Free entertainment will be taking place in the gardens from 12-7pm every day throughout the long weekend, promising to get even the most reluctant toe-tappers up and dancing.
The free music and street food event will run from St Patrick’s Day, Thursday 17 March, through to Sunday 20 March on the boardwalk in Piccadilly Gardens.
Read more: You can get bottomless Guinness and pizza at Crazy Pedro’s this St Patrick’s Day
Whilst Manchester already plays host to an annual community organised city-wide Irish Festival, this new additional event has been put together to help bring a taste of Ireland into the heart of the city centre.
The event has been funded through the European Regional Development Fund and their Welcome Back Fund, which has provided councils across the country with a share of £56 million to support the safe return to high streets and help build back better from the pandemic.
Councillor Pat Karney, city centre lead for Manchester City Council, said: “We all know that if you can’t be in the Emerald Isle itself then Manchester is the next best place to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.
“We also know that one day alone isn’t nearly long enough to celebrate all that’s great about Ireland and its unique cultural heritage of music and dance – which is why we’ve put together the weekender event to share the love over four days and give everyone a chance to enjoy the craic.
“It’s brilliant to see so many people already coming back into the city centre to enjoy what it has to offer, and the Manchester Irish Weekender gives another good reason to come into town. It’s going to be fantastic, so find a shamrock, wear something green, and come on down!”
What else is happening in Manchester for St Patrick’s Day?
Other events to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Manchester include the annual parade organised by the Irish World Heritage Centre in Cheetham Hill which takes place this Sunday 13 March, and the Manchester Irish Festival which has events throughout the month up to 20 March.
This weekend’s parade will start from the Irish World Heritage Centre on Queen’s Road in
Cheetham Hill at 12 noon on Sunday and will follow a route down Cheetham Hill Road as far as the AO Arena before turning round and following the same route back to where it started.
Highlights of the Manchester Irish Festival include the award-winning Fianna Phadraig Pipe band who are coming up to their 75th anniversary and will be taking the festival on tour with visits to different locations across the city throughout this weekend, before touring Levenshulme, Burnage, and Fallowfield on St Patrick’s Day itself.
Feature image – Twitter
News
New endometriosis pill helping hundreds of women with ‘debilitating’ condition to be made available on NHS
Emily Sergeant
A groundbreaking new pill to help women with a ‘debilitating’ condition is set to be made available on the NHS.
The new daily pill for endometriosis – which has been approved for use on the NHS in England by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – is called linzagolix, and will be available for those who have had previous treatment for endometriosis, working to manage any symptoms they may be experiencing.
Around 1.5 million women in the UK are thought to be currently living with endometriosis.
Endometriosis can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, and extreme tiredness when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body.
As mentioned, linzagolix will be available specifically for patients whose previous medical or surgical treatments for endometriosis have been unsuccessful, and will be given alongside ‘add-back’ hormone therapy – which involves using low-dose hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to prevent menopause-like symptoms and bone loss.
This is the second take-at-home treatment to be approved to treat endometriosis on the NHS, and it’s thought that more than 1,000 women will benefit.
In clinical trials, linzagolix was shown to be successful in reducing painful periods and non-menstrual pelvic pain, compared with placebo, hence why it has been approved on the NHS by NICE.
“This is welcome news for women with endometriosis who haven’t found relief from previous therapies or surgery,” commented Dr Sue Mann, who is the National Clinical Director in Women’s Health for NHS England.
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“It’s another treatment option which will help women take control of their health and better manage the symptoms of this often painful and debilitating condition.
“This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to improving treatment, care and quality of life for women.”
Featured Image – Heute
News
Wigan woman jailed after hitting pedestrian in Fiat 500 while driving high on nitrous oxide ‘balloons’
Emily Sergeant
A young woman from Wigan has been handed jail time after hitting a pedestrian while driving high on nitrous oxide.
Louisa Tunstall was driving a white Fiat 500 towards the East Lancashire Road in Wigan at around 7pm on Friday 24 May 2024 – a time when traffic conditions were said to be ‘quiet’ – but Tunstall was under the influence of a now-banned drug, nitrous oxide, at the time of the incident, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed.
While driving under the influence, 19-year-old Tunstall veered to the left onto the pavement and collided with a 51-year-old woman pedestrian.
After striking the woman, the car then overturned and, in the process, caused serious life-changing injuries.
When questioned by police, Tunstall stated that she ‘took her eyes off the road’ to retrieve something in the footwell before knowing the car had flipped, but she also confirmed that she had just been out to purchase nitrous oxide to use that evening.
After obtaining witness accounts, investigating officers were able to track down nearby CCTV footable which showed Tunstall inhaling nitrous oxide through a balloon whilst driving, seconds before the collision occurred.
Further investigation by GMP’s Forensic Vehicle Examination Unit examined the Fiat 500 and confirmed that no defects were found on the car to contribute towards the collision.
Still to this day, the victim says she is trying to recover from the injuries sustained to her leg that will prevent her from continuing life as she did before.
“The incident is still very raw when I think about it,” the victim explained in her impact statement released by GMP. “I become upset when I think at everything which has been taken away from me and the ongoing affect it has had and continues to have on my daily life.”
GMP says it’s seeing the use of nitrous oxide being a factor in incidents they attend increasing year on year.
Nitrous oxide, also known as ‘laughing gas’, is reported to produce euphoria, relaxation, dizziness, giggling or laughing fits, impaired judgement, and occasionally dissociation and hallucinations – which GMP says affects reaction time and and is ‘likely lead to impairment’ in driving performance, particularly when faced with an unexpected or hazardous situation.
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Tunstall appeared at Bolton Crown Court this week, and has been sentenced to one year and eight months imprisonment for having possession of a Class C drug, driving under the influence of drugs, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Alongside being jailed, she was also disqualified from driving for two years and eight months, and has been ordered to take an extended test when she is released.
Featured Image – GMP
Georgina Pellant -
10th March 2022 
