On the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day, Brussels City Council has once again decided that the magnificent Brussels Grand Place will be lit in green as part of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening Initiative, in partnership with the Embassy of Ireland to the Kingdom of Belgium.

The Brussels Grand Place will join iconic landmarks taking part in the Global Greening. The Colosseum in Rome, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in the fabled district of Montmartre overlooking Paris and the Grand Ole Opry (the show that made country music famous!) in Nashville will go green for the first time ever for St Patrick’s Day this year, as part of the organisation’s sixth annual Global Greening initiative.

Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening, which sees a host of major landmarks and iconic sites around the world illuminated in green for St Patrick’s Day, has grown from strength to strength, with a number of new landmarks signing up to take part in 2015, including the Burg in Bruges.

The new sites will join some ‘old favourites’ which have gone green in previous years – including Niagara Falls (on both the US and Canadian sides), the London Eye, the Allianz Arena in Munich, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, the Sky Tower in Auckland, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Cibeles Fountain and Palace in Madrid and one of last year’s newcomers, the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland® in Paris.

Members of the public are welcome to join the media to see the moment the Grand Place will be greened on Tuesday 17th March 2015 at 20h45 in the presence of Minister for European Affairs and Data Protection Mr. Dara Murphy T.D., Ambassador of Ireland to the Kingdom of Belgium Éamonn Mac Aodha and Tourism Ireland representatives.