It's being billed as the biggest-ever online celebration of St Patrick's Day, has cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to put together, is backed by the all-island tourism agency Tourism Ireland and includes the governments of Wales and Scotland among its  partners.

But the all-singing, all-dancing St Patrick's Festival, being billed as an unprecedented celebration of "our Ireland", won't reach as far as Slemish in Co Antrim, where the young Patrick tended sheep, nor Saul where he first made landfall, nor indeed Downpatrick, Co Down, where he is buried.

And belfastmedia.com can reveal that while no state agencies or arms-length bodies in the North were approached to back the six days of festivities, both the Scottish and Welsh governments are official partners.

And that's left a bitter taste in the mouth of community and arts organisations across the Six Counties which are hosting celebrations of the Patron Saint on 17 March.

'What are we? A bag of slack?" asked the director of a prominent arts centre in Belfast. "The quality and scale of artistic activity from The Duncairn, An Chultúrlann and Féile an Phobail over St Patrick's Day will be second-to-none," she said. "It's really shameful that we're being excluded from this party due to the fact that we live across a border which didn't even exist in the era of Naomh Pádraig."

Among the larger organisations chomping at the bit to take part in the St Patrick's Festival are Belfast City Council, now run by a progressive coalition of parties all committed to marking the Patron Saint's Day, and the Department of Communities, where Sinn Féin's Deirdre Hargey is at the helm.

However, it's believed neither were approached by the organisers who list Dublin City Council and the Department of Tourism and Culture in Dublin as their main financial backers.

Among the highlights of the St Patrick's Festival which will be broadcast on its own 'TV station' from 12 March are Sounds 'Celebrating the Contemporary and Traditional Music of Ireland' and Living Ireland 'How we Live and Love, Work and Play, Make and Create, Remember and Celebrate'.

The overall theme of the St Patrick's Festival will be 'Dúisigh Éire: Awaken Ireland'. It is unclear if that wake-up call includes the dozing denizens of the Six Counties. 

There is one connection with the North, though. Ironically, Tourism Ireland's Director of Policy & Northern Ireland is the agency's representative on the board. 

Belfastmedia.com has contacted St Patricks' Festival for a response but no statement had been received by the time of publication.