Global Greening at a glance
- Every St Patrick’s Day, landmarks around the world light up green for Ireland.
- It’s run by Tourism Ireland, and it started with the Sydney Opera House in 2010.
- It now covers hundreds of sites in dozens of countries; 2026 was its 17th year.
- Regulars include the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, the London Eye and the Sydney Opera House.
If you’ve noticed famous buildings glowing green around 17 March, you’ve seen the Global Greening. Every year, Tourism Ireland asks landmarks around the world to light up in green for St Patrick’s Day, and every year the list grows longer.
It’s a simple idea, and a clever one. Around 70 million people worldwide claim links to the island of Ireland, and seeing a famous landmark turn green in their own city is a nice reminder of home, or of the home their grandparents left.
How it started
The Global Greening began in 2010, when the Sydney Opera House went green for St Patrick’s Day. It caught on fast. Within a few years, landmarks on every continent had taken part, and the campaign has run every year since, even in 2021, when the pandemic meant there were no parades at home.
Famous landmarks that have gone green
Over the years, the list has included some of the most recognisable places on earth:
- Europe: the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the London Eye, Nelson’s Column, the Cibeles Fountain in Madrid, Cristo Rei in Lisbon, Brussels’ Manneken Pis (dressed in an Irish costume), and the James Joyce statue in Trieste.
- North America: the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls (on both the Canadian and US sides), the CN Tower in Toronto, Coit Tower in San Francisco, the “Welcome” sign in Las Vegas and Chicago’s Wrigley Building.
- Australia and New Zealand: the Sydney Opera House, where it all started, and Auckland’s Sky Tower.
- The rest of the world: Victoria Falls, the Palm Fountain in Dubai, the Torre Costanera in Santiago, the Sekenani Gate of Kenya’s Maasai Mara, and even a postbox on top of a mountain in Arctic Norway.
New sites join every year, so check Tourism Ireland’s announcement in early March to see what’s going green near you.
Other ways the world goes green
The Global Greening isn’t the only way the world turns green on 17 March:
- Chicago has dyed its river green every year since 1962.
- New York holds the world’s biggest St Patrick’s Day parade, with around 150,000 marchers up Fifth Avenue, a tradition dating back to 1762.
- Montserrat in the Caribbean is the only country outside Ireland where St Patrick’s Day is a public holiday. Read about the Irish of Montserrat.
For the best places to spend the day, see our guide to where to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, and check how many days until St Patrick’s Day.
Has a building near you gone green for St Patrick’s Day? Tell us in the comments.
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Pin photo: Sydney Opera House on St Patrick’s Day by Kahunapule Michael Johnson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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