Irish tourism begins long road to recovery on St. Patrick's Day

FILE PHOTO: A display by Tourism Ireland entitled "Orchestra of Light" featuring a swarm of 500 drones is animated in the night sky above the Samuel Beckett bridge on the river Liffey for St Patrick's Day, as it is cancelled for the second year in a row due to the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dublin, Ireland, March 7, 2021. Picture taken March 7, 2021. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland celebrated St. Patrick's Day with packed parades through its towns and cities for the first time in three years on Thursday, celebrations its battered tourism sector hopes will begin a long road to recovery.

The national holiday traditionally kicked off the tourism season before COVID-19 cut the number of arrivals in Ireland below 5 million in both 2020 and 2021 from the record 20 million in 2019, four times the country's population.