Jump into colorful St. Paddy’s celebrations around Clark County

It’ll cost you at least $900 to fly from Portland to Dublin. Probably a lot more, especially if you want to return.

It’ll cost far less to go totally Irish right here in County Clark. Numerous events planned for the next few days — concerts, meals and drinks, an annual parade and a Hollywood classic — will celebrate our town’s deep roots in the Emerald Isle.

Start off at Shorty’s Garden & Home nursery, where authentic Irish beer will flow and food will simmer during the annual St. Paddy’s for Parks party, 5 to 10 p.m. March 11. Plenty of music and dance is on tap, too: the Vancouver Firefighters Pipe and Drum Corps will be joined by the Molly Malone Irish Dancers for traditional festivities; after that, the dancing becomes your job as 5 Guys Named Moe crank out covers of hits from the 1960s to right now. Don’t forget to wear your best Irish garb for the costume contest.

St. Paddy’s for Parks is a fundraiser for the Parks Foundation, a homegrown nonprofit agency that supplements public budgets with grants and donations for parks-and-recreation needs — everything from land purchases and playground construction to recreation scholarships for people who need them.

Leave the kids at home on the night of March 11, but bring them to Shorty’s the next morning for the free (and beer-free), child-sized version of the same party. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., St. Paddy’s for Kids will feature arts and crafts, nature activities and even a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

‘Tis you, ’tis you

The song “Danny Boy” seems too perfect to have been composed by a mere mortal. It feels like it’s always been there — bubbled up from prehistoric peasantry or maybe just handed down from heaven.

And that’s not so far from the truth. The anonymous melody, “Londonderry Air,” was first published in 1855 in a book called “The Ancient Music of Ireland,” and various lyric settings turned it into hymns, love songs, tributes to nature and tearful ballads of farewell. In 1910, the prolific English author and lyricist Frederic Edward Weather — lawyer by day, sentimental scribe by night — wrote the “Danny Boy” words that we know and love today. But the tune was different, and it didn’t catch on. Weather’s sister-in-law was the one who brought “Londonderry Air” to his attention; the new lyrics fit the old tune perfectly, and a timeless classic was born.

“Danny Boy” is now one of the most famous and beloved songs in the world — the unofficial anthem of Irishness and the Irish diaspora everywhere.

You can hear what promises to be a grand and gorgeous rendition of “Danny Boy,” and many sister songs from across the pond, during From the British Isles, a pair of concerts by the Vancouver USA Singers. Don’t forget your Kleenex, because the material is aimed squarely at the squishiest parts of your heart: tear-jerking favorites such as “Greensleeves,” “A Red Red Rose,” “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye” and even “Let It Be” by a certain Englishman of Irish-Catholic descent (last name of McCartney). Jazz singer Darcy Schmitt will handle the vocals on that one.

The real showcase of the concerts is the beautiful and celebrated “Requiem,” a 40-minute choral work by contemporary English composer John Rutter. “Requiem” features a small chamber orchestra including Laurie Chinn on piano, Ehd Boddy on keyboards, Aaron Tuchard on tympani, John Thomas on glockenspiel, Mary Ann Glover on flute, Britta Horlings on cello and Annika Horlings on clarinet. Two From the British Isles concerts are scheduled: 7 p.m. March 12 and 3 p.m. March 13 at the First Presbyterian Church at 4300 Main St. The Vancouver USA Singers are an all-volunteer community group.

Loud, then ‘Quiet’

With all that weekend fun, it might be a little too easy to forget that St. Patrick’s Day is actually March 17 — except that plenty of sights and sounds will remind you.

For one thing, downtown’s 25th annual Paddy Hough Parade begins at 12:30 p.m. in front of Hough Elementary School, 1900 Daniels St., and then heads north and east and comes right down Main Street. Every single student is a proud parade marcher, they should be: The school and the neighborhood were both named for one of our genuine local “founding fathers,” schoolteacher and associate superintendent Patrick Hough, a native of Tipperary, Ireland, who emigrated to Vancouver in 1883.

Later that day, prepare your ears for some power from a nearby British Isle. The Fort Vancouver Pipe Band will briefly blow bagpipes at the Kiggins Theatre by way of introducing the classic John Wayne tribute to Ireland, “The Quiet Man.” The bagpipe is most closely identified with Scotland, whose closest point to Ireland is about 20 miles across the Irish Sea — but that’s close enough for the band, which will play music from both sides for about half an hour.

Then it’s “The Quiet Man,” a different sort of movie for Duke: a lighthearted romantic comedy that features a glittering Irish countryside and what might be the longest and jolliest fist fight ever filmed.