18 March holiday

Unless you work in a bank (or want to use a bank's services), "bank holiday" has no relevance.

"Public holiday" is the only phrase that matters, and both 17th and 18th of March this year are public holidays, both have the same legal standing, there is no difference between them

Apart from Good Friday, which is a bank holiday but not a public holiday.

I don't work in a bank - so most jobs I've had in Ireland, I've had to either work or take annual leave on Good Friday. Same for most workers, AFAIK.

In my current workplace (not a bank) its a compulsory, but taken from annual leave, day. However, when it was made compulsory (along with the three work days between Christmas and NYE) we were given four days extra annual leave to cover it, so arguably for longer serving workers it just became a day off. Odd setup.

I have had to work on some of those four days and only get the one day leave back as a result.

The civil service close for it, not sure about the wider public service.

Not for the wider public service or certainly not the health service,we have to work or request day off. It is a popular time to be off for anyone with school going children of course so would be quieter day at work.