For the day that’s in it: Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all or, more appropriately: Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh go léir.
Don’t forget that the Castleisland St. Patrick’s Day Parade will start from the mart yard at 1:30pm and floats and participants are asked to gather there at 1pm.
There will be a one-way system in operation in that the gathering will do so by the Convent Street / Creamery Lane entrance.
A Lap of the Town
The parade will proceed by The Crageens towards the top-of-the-town exit and then do a lap of the town and will return to the mart yard before dispersing.
This is the plan agreed by the adhoc group on the advice of An Garda Síochána.
There is a vague threat of occasional showers (of rain) but we might just get away with it.
After two long years off the road, it will make a great and very welcome spectacle. Enjoy it – with care.
I came across the attached photograph of my late Tralee Road neighbour, Paddy Nelligan the other evening while trawling.
On CountryWide
I had occasion to mention Paddy’s name on the RTÉ Radio One Saturday morning programme ‘CountryWide’ recently.
I was asked by producer Eileen Herron to join a panel to discuss how notes writers gather their weekly offerings for their respective newspapers.
I joined Rosemary Gaynor from the Anglo Celt in Cavan and Joe O’Brien of The Longford Leader and we all put in our tuppence worth to the programme.
The Paddy Nelligan Put-Down
Presenter, Damien O’Reilly then asked me to give a bit of advice to the newcomer, Rosemary. And because of how Paddy Nelligan put my career in context years ago I blurted out that maybe she shouldn’t consider it work at all.
I explained that I met Paddy on the street one day as he was climbing onto his tractor and I asked him if I could take a photograph of him.
He consented and we chatted after for a while.
Change in Career
Because I worked as a carpenter on Paddy’s and his brother Jack’s house in Kilally some years previously, Paddy asked me about my change of career with: “Do you do any work now Johnny only the photos.”
What could you say to that and, on the spot, all I could manage was ‘No Paddy,’
You can hear the clip just 24 minutes in with a click on the link here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/countrywide/programmes/2022/0226/1283130-countrywide-saturday-26-february-2022/
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