STORY:
Ireland Launches Millennium Fest

According to This is London, the world's first official millennium celebrations started with a bang in Ireland with a pyrotechnics display touted as the biggest yet seen in Europe. The 6.5 tonnes of explosives - 15,000 shells in all went up in a barrage of noise and smoke. 63-year-old Australian Syd Howard, who lit up the skies of Hong Kong on the night of the handover to China orchestrated the event.

Extra police were drafted into the center of Dublin where up to 250,000 people were expected to gather, according to tourist board projections.| | The event on the banks of the River Liffey launched five days of revelry across Ireland leading up to the biggest St Patrick's Day celebrations on the island to date.

The festival is the first of eight official celebrations in the Irish Republic - or anywhere in the world - to herald the year 2000.| |

The celebrations are among the most lavish yet laid on by the Irish government, currently cash-rich in the Celtic Tiger boom.| | More than IR£1 million has been spent on this week's events alone - a dramatic contrast to IR£7,000 contributed by the state to the modest St Patrick's Day parade only five years ago.

Source:

DATE: 3/15/99

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