2.6°C Cloudy 
NEW YORK - All the world from the Sydney Opera House to the Empire State Building turned Irish for the day, as revelers marked St. Patrick's Day with bagpipes, dancing, emerald lights and green body paint in a flurry of celebration.
New Yorkers and visitors from all over the globe lined Manhattan's Fifth Avenue a dozen deep for the world's oldest and largest St. Patrick's Day parade Wednesday, as crowds gathered along sun-warmed routes in Dublin and cities around the U.S. to mark the holiday.
As many as a quarter-million marchers headed up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue for the world's oldest and largest St. Patrick's Day parade, just as crowds gathered along parade routes in Dublin and cities around the country to mark the emerald-hued holiday.
It was expected to be a mix of lighthearted cheer and serious politics at the White House, where President Barack Obama was meeting with Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.
Obama noted that 36 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, adding, "I'm sure more do on St. Patrick's Day."
"And it's a testament I think to how close our two countries are that America has been shaped culturally, politically, economically by the incredible contributions of Irish Americans," Obama said.
More than a half-million people lined the 3-kilometre (2-mile) route of the flagship Dublin parade beneath unusually sunny skies in this wet, windy land. The parade's theme "The Extraordinary World" celebrated Ireland's increasing multiculturalism as well as the global spread of the Irish.
Mixed in with the usual displays of U.S. marching bands and Irish sporting heroes were dancing troupes from Africa and India, bands from Austria and France, giant insect floats from Spain, and Dubliners dancing with mops and dusters.
This year Ireland 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 back for the first time in 15 years.
As part of a marketing deal by Ireland's tourism agency, major world landmarks - including the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye, Toronto's CN Tower and New York's Empire State Building - were bathed in green lights.
Virtually the entire Irish government left the country this week to press the flesh of foreign leaders and corporate kingpins in 23 countries, particularly in the United States, in hopes of rekindling the investment wave that fueled Ireland's boom of 1994-2007.
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 embrace of Irish heritage and culture in New York City includes bands, bagpipes and grand marshal Ray Kelly, the city's police commissioner.
The 249th St. Patrick's Day extravaganza will be the last of New York City's world-famous parades to take place before new restrictions go into effect April 1 requiring all parades to be shorter to save money.
Tourist John Rupy considered this news along the parade route, where he arrived dressed in a kilt with his skin painted green.
"That's not good," he said, "because the whole world comes to this."
The city issued the new parade rules in February. All parades must cut routes by 25 per cent and reduce time to less than five hours, changes estimated to save $3.1 million in police expenses.
The St. Patrick's Day parade runs about 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometres) from 44th Street to 86th Street and is typically a six-hour celebration.
With the sun shining and temperatures in the 60s, a large turnout was expected in New York City.
Parade participants on Wednesday included the "Fighting 69th," a New York National Guard unit whose history stretches to the U.S. Civil War when immigrants made up the so-called "Irish Brigade" of the Union Army.
Gov. David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral before the parade.
Representatives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups were not allowed to participate in the march - at least, not under their own banner. Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, who run America's biggest St. Patrick's Day celebration, say they may invite whomever they please.
Bloomberg favours inclusion but still planned to participate.
The day is named after St. Patrick, who introduced Christianity to Ireland about 1,500 years ago and became the country's patron saint.
The White House event was also expected to draw leaders of Northern Ireland, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised the leaders for reaching an agreement in February that prevented a collapse of the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government.
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Associated Press Writer Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.
