St Patrick's Day 2024: how the royals celebrated without Kate Middleton

The Prince and Princess of Wales were the big absentees from the St Patrick's Day 2024 parade in England.

By Mercedes Romero Sabaini

There was great anticipation this year about how St Patrick's Day 2024 would be celebrated in the UK royal household, as it would be the first with Kate Middleton as honorary colonel of the Irish Guards, who was given the title after the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year.

Great disappointment fell when Buckingham Palace announced that none of the Prince and Princess of Wales would be attending this year's ceremony at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, England. The reason? The same one for which Kate has been absent since the end of 2023: she is recovering from abdominal surgery.

So how did the St Patrick's Day 2024 parade go ahead without Kate Middleton and Prince William? Since 2012, Princess Kate was in charge of handing out sprigs of shamrocks to the Irish Guards and the Irish Guards' mascot, Seamus the dog, to add to their uniform. This year she was replaced by Lady Ghika, wife of the regiment's Lieutenant Colonel, Major General Sir Christopher Ghika.

Later, the Irish Guards gave the Princess of Wales three cheers at the end of her parade as a way of wishing her the best possible recovery. While the future King and Queen of the UK were not in attendance, they shared a video on their official Instagram account of the parade rehearsals and added a note congratulating their people.

St. Patrick's Day is a Christian religious holiday held annually on 17 March to commemorate the death of St. Patrick of Ireland, patron saint of the entire Irish island in north-western continental Europe. As the United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the British Royal Family always organises an event in honour of the holiday where the Irish Guards parade at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, England.

*This article was originally published on Canal C.