Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

St. Patrick’s Day in the USA

Posted by Alex Turnbull, Tuesday, 17th March 2009

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March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day, which was originally the annual feast of the best known of Ireland’s patron saints1, and today a worldwide celebration devoted to all things Irish.

Over here in Ireland and the UK, we have been known to celebrate with vast quantities of Guinness. Over in the US however, they like large scale annual celebrations involving crazy things like temporarily dying the Chicago River green (which sadly hasn’t yet been captured on Google Earth2).

But in today’s post we’ll be looking at some of the places that St. Patrick has found a permanent home in the USA.

This is St Patrick’s park in Indiana, where they have created a 400 metre long homage to their namesake, entirely in the medium of trees. Which is apt, given how much of the colour green gets bandied around on the 17th of March.

We’ve visited the original Dublin already on Google Sightseeing, but there are at least nine cities called Dublin in the USA alone!

See for yourself: Dublin, California; Dublin, Georgia; Dublin, Indiana; Dublin, New Hampshire; Dublin, North Carolina; Dublin, Ohio; Dublin, Pennsylvania; Dublin, Texas; and Dublin, Virginia.

In New York City we find St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a spectacular Neo-Gothic cathedral in midtown Manhattan that has become ingrained in Hollywood movie history, after being featured in several movies including 2002’s Spider-Man.

So, where else has St. Patrick and the influence of Ireland made a lasting impression around the world?

Happy Paddy’s day!

Thanks to Chris R.


  1. Despite the fact that he was actually Welsh

  2. Unfortunately I can’t even find an image of it in the historical GE imagery

6 Responses to 'St. Patrick’s Day in the USA'

  1. Brian says:

    Would St. Patricks Cathedral not be considered a movie location?

    Happy St. Pattys day!!

    • justinf says:

      its SAINT PADDY’S day.

      NOTE: a lot of Irish find the St “Patty” stuff by Americans very annoying, as patty is Irish shorthand for the female version of Patrick – Patricia.

      and Patrick was obviously a man. Paddy is the shorthand for that.

  2. Brian says:

    I apologize, I did not mean to offend anyone.

  3. justinf says:

    no -you didnt cause any offense at all! dont worry. its an americanism.

    just watching all the tweets on twitter referring to “st pattys” day

  4. John Mack says:

    is there any chance that Google Europe spend a bit of time mapping Ireland.. The coverage is very poor still.. please.. Don’t forget that Dublin is one of your European data centers. AKA Server Farm

  5. Zak Lybrand says:

    I think it’s worth mentioning that Dublin, Texas is the home to the ever-famous Dublin Dr Pepper!

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