Every year, St. Patrick’s Day, which is Ireland’s National day, is celebrated on the 17th of March. The day is usually celebrated with crowds gathering to watch street parades and enjoy an atmosphere of exciting colours and music. This year, the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese specially arranged ‘Third Prince’ to attend the parade held in the seaside town of Bray, Co. Wicklow, located on the outskirts of Dublin.
The Third Prince is known for his bright costumes and dynamic dances, which integrates the old cultural traditions of Taiwan with the new and emerging trends such as electronic dance music. The popular RTÉ TV show, The Ray D'Arcy Show, aired on 16th March also presented the performance of the Third Prince in their St. Patrick’s Day special programme.
The principal of the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese, Ms. Evan Furlong, remarked that the Third Prince is an important symbol of Taiwan’s cultural diversity. He was originally a deity in Indian Buddhism and later became an important idol within Daoism. Once introduced to in Taiwan, the Third Prince became an important symbol of temple festivals.
The Third Prince is popular for many reasons, his literary personality of rebellion & freedom and his cute appearance and energetic dance that are influenced by Japanese comic culture and American Street dance. This integration of influences reflects Taiwan’s diverse culture in the past 400 years.
The exciting performance of the Third Princes in the St. Patricks day parade was thus very successful, and audience members happily joined in with the celebrations by dancing alongside the Third Princes.
Evan Furlong thanked the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) and the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland for their sponsorship. It is no doubt a great opportunity for Irish people to experience the magic of the Third Prince. Events of such kind help promote Taiwanese culture and tradition in Ireland and thus can further enhance cultural exchange and cooperation between the two islands.
The Third Prince in the Ray D’Arcy show aired on the Irish National television channel RTE on 16th March 2019.
The Third Prince participated in the Bray St. Patrick’s Day Parade.