A week before the St. Patrick’s Day festivities, the Défilé de la Saint- Patrick de Québec (DSPQ) is putting the final touches on its packed program, culminating with the parade on March 28.

Festivities open with the traditional Shannon Irish Show at the Shannon Community Centre on March 14 at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m (see separate story in this edition). From jigs to singing, Shannonites know how to put on a show. The Pride of Shannon young children’s ensemble always captures the hearts of spectators, while the Kitchen Party, with its hilarious skits, makes them laugh.

The Ville de Québec starts the festivities with the raising of the Irish tricolour flag at City Hall at 9 a.m. on March 17. “These festivities are appreciated by the young and old. We have planned activities for everyone,” said the president of the DSPQ, Mike-James Noonan. “It is important to celebrate the Irish of Quebec City because they contributed a lot to Quebec.”

Irish Heritage Quebec has a special evening for St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, on March 18 at 7:20 p.m. at McMahon Hall of St. Patrick’s Church, where local historian Steve Cameron will give a talk about Irish folklore, titled We Never Quite Leave.

On March 21, the history lesson continues with the Honouring Indigenous Famine Aid From Quebec exhibit inside the De Koninck pavilion at Université Laval (DKN-1151). This bilingual exhibit shines a light on the help given by the First Nations of Quebec, notably the Wendat of Wendake, Abenakis of Odanak and Mohawks of Kahnawake, in 1847, during the darkest year of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

The local pubs will also be busy in the week leading up to the parade, with whiskey tasting at Le Nelligan on March 21. Le Nelligan, Pub Galway, Chez Murphy’s, the Pub St-Patrick and La Korrigane will be busy, some with live music.

Storyteller Dominique Deslongchamps and fiddler Daniel Fréchette will mix Irish and Québécois traditions in a festive free performance at La Korrigane on March 18 and 26.

From March 17 to 28, children and children at heart can search for the hidden leprechauns along the Leprechaun Trail from Place D’Youville to the Château Frontenac. The Patriotes de Québec invite the public to discover Gaelic football and hurling at three separate clinics, on March 17 at the Centre Louis- Jolliet, March 20 at Stade Telus and March 21 at Stade Leclerc. For the unfamiliar, Gaelic football is a mix of soccer, rugby and basketball, while hurling is a blend of hockey, lacrosse and baseball.

Between Gaelic sports and chasing leprechauns, how about a movie or two? At Cinéma Beaumont (Complexe Méduse) on March 22 at 10 a.m., families can watch the animated film Le Chant de la Mer, about a brother and sister who fight a witch to break a curse threatening to turn the sister into a selkie. On March 24 at 7 p.m., the same cinema is showing Sing Street, an Irish coming-of-age movie set in 1980s Dublin.

The Défilé de la Saint-Patrick de Québec closes the festivities on March 28. The parade starts on Avenue Cartier at 2 p.m. and continues along Grande Allée into the Old City, past the Château Frontenac, ending at City Hall. The iconic parade, led by Grand Marshal Robert Dinan, is packed with marching bands, Irish dancers, local organizations, family groups, the four police pipe-and-drum bands from Toronto, New York City, Boston and Chicago and Quebec City’s own 78th Fraser Highlanders. This parade attracts thousands of spectators who line the 2.5-kilometre route.

For more information, visit qcpatrick.com/en.