Meetings with interested parties regarding this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Castleisland will be held during the coming week to gauge levels of interest and support for the event.
Judging by last year’s record breaking crowds of volunteers, participants and spectators there weren’t too many standing outside the ‘interested parties’ circles.
The annual call for stewarding volunteers is as clarion as ever as an event of this nature and size demands that all hands are on deck with traffic management and the like. And there are the perennial issues like event insurance to be surmounted.
John Lenihan as Grand Marshall
Former World Mountain Running Champion and winner of almost everything he entered, John Lenihan has been asked to take on the role of Grand Marshall in this year’s parade.
The role has previously been filled by parade founders, the late Helen and Aeneas Leane; by champion race walker, Pat Murphy; by Silent Whisper – a Clonmel hero greyhound and his friends Mossie Leane and Mossie O’Connor; by All-Ireland Vintage Ploughing Champion, Aeneas Horan and Irish Women’s Rugby team Captain Ciara Griffin and by European Boxing Silver Medalists Jamesie Casey and Mary McDonagh.
From the Mart Yard at 1:30pm
This year’s parade will set out from the Castleisland Co-Op Mart yard at 1:30pm with the gathering time of no later that 1pm through a one-way in and out system – and that’s where the stewarding comes into play.
The parade will again be led by the stirring strains of the Cullen Pipe Band and there will be live music on the street from 12noon.
Joe Dolan Tribute Specialist
The Joe Dolan Tribute specialist Paschal Brennan will entertain the gathering crowds from mid-day until the parade begins to roll.
Meanwhile, in advance of the 2024 Community Support Fund meetings scheduled for March 13th and 14th and based on a recommendation received from the assessment panel, the amounts approved to support St. Patrick’s Day Festivals 2024 are set out in the table here on the page.
The applicant groups are being informed of their allocations to enable the planning of these events to go ahead.
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