The Emerald Isle Heritage

Montserrat is known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, and not only for its green hills: the island has a genuine and unique Irish heritage, a legacy of the Irish settlers, many of them indentured, who came in the seventeenth century, and of the enslaved Africans they brought, whose blended descendants make up the population. This distinctive fusion lives on in a shamrock stamped in visitors' passports, Irish place and family names, a national flag bearing a woman with a harp, and traces in music and folklore. Above all, it is celebrated each March, for Montserrat is the only place in the world outside Ireland where St Patrick's Day is a national public holiday, marked by a week-long festival that also solemnly commemorates an enslaved people's uprising.

What you actually see

• The St Patrick's festival - the week-long March celebration.
• The Irish heritage - the shamrocks, names and symbols.
• The blended culture - the fusion of Irish and African roots.
• The commemoration - the remembrance of the 1768 slave uprising.

When to go

Mid-March, around St Patrick's Day, is the most vibrant and meaningful time, when the island holds its week-long festival of music, food, masquerade and heritage events; the Irish heritage can be encountered year-round in place names, symbols and culture, but the March festival is its fullest expression, blending celebration with solemn commemoration.

Honest expectations

Montserrat's Irish heritage, while genuine and unique, is subtle in daily life, seen mostly in symbols, names and the March festival rather than an overt Irish atmosphere, and it is bound up with the difficult history of indenture and slavery, which the St Patrick's festival also solemnly commemorates alongside a slave uprising. As a genuinely distinctive cultural identity, though, the Caribbean's Emerald Isle with the only national St Patrick's Day outside Ireland, blending Irish and African roots, it is a fascinating and meaningful aspect of the island.

Nearby

The volcano, the north and the villages of Montserrat hold the heritage.