Saint Patrick's Day have been cross-community St Patrick's Day parades in towns throughout Northern Ireland, which have attracted thousands of spectators. In the mid-1990s the government of the Republic of Ireland began a campaign to use St Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called St Patrick's Festival, with the aims: The first St Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long; more than 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade. Overall 2009's five-day
CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent St-Laurent" and USCGC "Polar Sea" became the first North American surface vessels to reach the North Pole. In the summer of 2006, CBC TV's "" broadcast from "Louis S. St-Laurent" in a special series focused on climate change. The vessel was originally scheduled to be decommissioned in 2000 however a refit extended the decommissioning date to 2017. In the 26 February 2008 federal budget, the Government of Canada announced it was funding a $721 million "Polar Class Icebreaker" (named ) as a replacement vessel for "Louis S. St-Laurent". In 2014, with , "Louis S. St-Laurent" performed a cruise to the