A sea of flags ripples through Rosario’s Parque Nacional a la Bandera. Set on the shore of the Paraná River, the park pays homage to the Argentine flag in the city of its birth. The blue and white glow emitted by the looming national flag memorial illuminates the scene, providing the backdrop to Rosario’s biggest annual festival: ‘El Encuentro y Fiesta de las Colectividades’.

or most visitors to the country, the most interesting thing about Argentine banknotes is their ability to drive taxi drivers and shop keepers to apoplexy when trying to change anything larger than a $20 bill. However the faces they portray reveal a colourful journey through the good, the bad and the ugly of Argentina’s early post-independence history.

A late summer morning in Chacarita Cemetery and Presbyterian minister, Kenneth Murray, commits the body of a young marine who lost his life in the service of his country, to the ground. A crowd of about 60 mourners look on intently as the sun glints off the shining bugles of the Argentine naval honour guard.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. The war, although short-lived, continues to weigh heavily on the Argentine conscience. However, the dispute over the islands did not begin in 1982. The territory has been a source of bitter tension since its first sighting by Europeans 500 years ago.

On 17th March, hundreds of porteños will throng to Buenos Aires’ Irish bars to celebrate St Patrick’s Day and the contribution made to Argentine life by Irish immigrants and their descendants. According to historian and genealogist Dr Guillermo MacLoughlin, as many as 500,000 Argentines can claim Irish ancestry, with the country being the largest non-English speaking area of Irish emigration.

“My destiny has always been a literary destiny,” Jorge Luis Borges once stated. “This is the heritage that I received. When I was a child it was always understood that I had to become a writer; that I had to fulfill the literary destiny that had been denied to my forefathers.”