Kate Middleton’s shoe became stuck when standing on a grate as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend a St Patrick’s Day parade today.
Prince William was on hand to help his pregnant wife – but could not help having a little laugh as she tried to retrieve her shoe.
The amusing scene was completed by the soldier continuing to salute the Royal couple as Kate Middleton had to bend down to force her heel from the grate.
Dressed in the same green Emilia Wickstead dress coat she wore to the event last year, Kate Middleton smiled broadly as she greeted soldiers from the 1st Battalion Irish Guards at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire.
Kate Middleton’s heel became stuck when standing on a grate as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend a St Patrick’s Day parade
The Duchess’ bump could only occasionally be seen under the coat – which was an appropriate color for the occasion.Under grey skies, pregnant Kate Middleton took her position next to Prince William on a podium which offered them cover from the rain.
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Americans have started celebrating St. Patrick’s Day across the country on Saturday, one day before the March 17 festival.
Chicago held its annual parade on Saturday morning and dyed the Chicago River green while New York held its famous parade greeted by thousands.
Revelers, children and even pets were decked out in green to mark the occasion with Irish flags hanging from street corners across the country.
At the New York parade which claims be the “oldest, biggest, and best in the world”, partygoers withstood the snow and cold to join in the fun.
The massive parade, which predates the United States beginning in the 1700, was led by 750 members of the New York Army National Guard.
The parade lasted for almost five hours with dancers, bands and battalions all taking part. The 1st Battalion of the 69th Infantry has been marching in the parade since 1851.
Michael Bloomberg took in his last St. Patrick’s Day as mayor, waving to a cheering crowd.
Marching just behind him was Irish PM Enda Kenny, who presented Michael Bloomberg with a historic Irish teapot earlier in the day.
In the south of the country, thousands of revelers garbed in green crammed the oak-shaded squares and sidewalks of downtown Savannah, Georgia, for a celebration that’s a 189-year-old tradition.
Led by bagpipers in green kilts, a parade kicked off Saturday morning, hours after customers began lining up at downtown bars.
More than 1,000 worshipers also packed the pews of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist for the Mass that traditionally precedes the parade.
Boston is also getting into the mood ahead of its parade on Sunday.
The 112th St. Patrick’s Day parade is expected to be attended by nearly 1 million people but pub crawls will be going on all weekend.
Chicago held its annual St Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday morning and dyed the Chicago River green
In Maine, St. Patrick’s Day prompted Governor Paul LePage to relent on a vow to veto any bill that reached his desk before lawmakers pass his proposal to pay a state debt to hospitals.He signed a measure Friday allowing bars to serve alcohol a few hours earlier than usual, starting at 6 a.m., on the Sunday holiday.
About 1,500 miles southwest, the city of Houma, Louisiana., was holding its unconventional celebration – an Irish-Italian parade, with a celebration that features both Irish cabbage and Italian sausage – on Sunday.
The event resumed last year after a 10-year hiatus.
In Rolla, Missouri, the Missouri University of Science and Technology continued a St. Patrick’s Day tradition that began in 1908, when students paid homage to the patron saint of Ireland who was the patron saint of engineers.
In Ireland, Dublin’s five-day St. Patrick’s Day festival was unfolding with a new addition.
For the first time, up to 8,000 visitors from around the world were due to march in a so-called people’s parade on Sunday, when Irish capital city also intends hold its usual procession of bands and pageantry.
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New York police cleared Zuccotti Park where the Occupy Wall Street movement was born six months ago and made several arrests after hundreds of protesters returned in an anniversary observance and defiantly resisted calls to clear out.
Some of Occupy protesters locked arms and sat down in the middle of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street after police announced on a bullhorn at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday that the park was closed. Officers then poured into the park, forcing most of the crowd out and surrounding a small group that stayed behind. Police formed a human ring around the park to keep protesters out.
Several people were arrested, police said. An unused public transit bus was brought in to cart away about a dozen protesters in plastic handcuffs. One female under arrest had difficulty breathing and was taken away in an ambulance to be treated.
For hours, the demonstrators had been chanting and holding impromptu meetings in the park to celebrate the anniversary of the movement that has brought attention to economic inequality, as police mainly kept their distance.
But New York Police Det. Brian Sessa said the tipping point came when the protesters started breaking the park rules.
“They set up tents. They had sleeping bags,” he said. Electrical boxes also were tampered with and there was evidence of graffiti.
Brian Sessa said Brookfield Properties, the park owner, sent in security to advise the protesters to stop pitching tents and to leave the park. The protesters, in turn, became agitated with them. The company then asked the police to help them clear out the park, the detective said.
“Most of the people, they left the park,” Brian Sessa said.
“People who refused to leave and were staying were arrested.”
New York police cleared Zuccotti Park where the Occupy Wall Street movement was born six months ago and made several arrests
Earlier in the day, with the city’s attention focused on the huge St. Patrick’s Day parade many blocks uptown, the Occupy rally at Zuccotti Park drew hundreds of people.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who had given a speech at a nearby university, also made an appearance at the park, milling around with protesters.
With the barricades that once blocked them from Wall Street now removed, the protesters streamed down the sidewalk and covered the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial. There, steps from the New York Stock Exchange and standing at the feet of a statue of George Washington, they danced and chanted, “We are unstoppable.”
Police say arrests were made, but they didn’t have a full count yet.
Protesters have questioned whether the group can regain its momentum. This month, the finance accounting group in New York City reported that just about $119,000 remained in Occupy’s bank account – the equivalent of about two weeks’ worth of expenses.
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The legend says that St. Patrick came to Ireland in the fifth century to spread the word of Christ and banish snakes from its shores.
As St. Patrick’s Day 2012 is celebrated today, March 17, it seems the patron saint’s motives for leaving Roman Britain may have been less selfless than previously thought.
According to a new research, it seems that St. Patrick actually fled to Ireland to avoid becoming a tax collector. Once there, however, it is claimed he took up an even more dubious occupation – as a slave trader.
Patrick’s father was a Decurion, a Roman official responsible for tax collection in Britain. But he used a bail-out clause in Roman law that allowed him to leave his post by joining the clergy on the condition the job was passed to his son.
Dr. Roy Flechner, an expert in ancient and medieval history from Cambridge University, claims that Patrick, alarmed at the prospect of taking on the unpopular job, decided to emigrate.
As well as collecting tax (with any shortfall coming from the Decurion’s own pocket), duties included road maintenance and the recruitment of soldiers.
“In the troubled era in which Patrick lived, which saw the demise and eventual collapse of Roman government in Britain in 410AD, discharging the obligations of a Decurion, especially tax-collecting, would not only have been difficult but also very risky,” said Dr. Roy Flechner, whose research is based on a new analysis of St. Patrick’s writings.
According to a new research, it seems that St. Patrick actually fled to Ireland to avoid becoming a tax collector
Patrick was forced to find a way of retaining some of the family estate – in the shape of slaves – to pay for his new life in Ireland.
Dr. Roy Flechner said Patrick may have become a slave trader because it was the only way he could transfer his wealth from England, as Ireland did not have a monetary economy at the time.
Slaves were a highly valued commodity and Patrick’s writings mention that his family owned several.
Dr. Roy Flechner said: “It may seem strange that a Christian cleric of Patrick’s stature would own slaves, but in late antiquity and the early middle ages the church was a major slave owner.
“The only objections to slavery were cases in which Christian slaves were owned by non-Christians.”
Dr. Roy Flechner claimed that the traditional legend of St. Patrick’s arrival in Ireland was invented by the man himself because that is how he wanted to be remembered.
He also questioned the part of the legend that says before his arrival as a missionary St. Patrick spent six years as a young slave in Ireland himself.
“The probability that Patrick managed to cross from his alleged place of captivity in western Ireland back to Britain undetected, at a time when transportation was extremely complicated, is highly unlikely,” Dr. Roy Flechner said.
“None of this is to say that Patrick was not a bishop or that he did not engage in missionary activity, but his primary motives for moving to Ireland were most likely to escape the poisoned chalice of his inherited position in Roman Britain.”
