Organisers estimate that crowds of 20,000 people lined the streets to see Kilkenny City’s St Patrick’s Day parade on Friday.
They defied the weather as crowds flocked to the Marble City to play their part in a vibrant, multicultural and hugely colourful celebration of the national holiday. Representing community, school, sports clubs and cultural groups, it took over an hour to pass the main reviewing stand at the junction of Patrick Street and the Parade. READ MORE BELOW
The parade was the core of five-day celebration of family-friendly activities, in particular Saturday night’s fireworks display in Kilkenny Castle Park.
Mayor David Fitzgerald said the parade and the weekend’s activities had seen a major international boost for the city.
“The presence of Gabe Saglie of Travelzoo travel and media company, broadcasting live to 28 millions viewers from the Parade to the USA on Thursday, including to the major US TV networks, was an incredible achievement for our small city,” the mayor said.
“To hear him say live on CNN, FOX and other channels that our city is the best place to visit, outside of Dublin, was quite something.
“To receive text and WhatsApp messages from Kilkenny people all over the world saying how proud they were to see the city getting such incredible exposure on international media channels is surely an indication as to how far we have come since the very continuation of the St Patrick’s Day parade was being called into question. The work of our festival committee and of festival director Marian Flannery and her small team has made this all a reality.”
Chairperson of the St Patrick’s Festival committee, Cllr Joe Malone, said that the success of the festival celebrations was evident.
“The explosion of colour and the fantastic celebration of our traditional and contemporary lives in Kilkenny was a joy to see,” he said. “We had groups from throughout the city and county and I congratulate the efforts people made in preparing for the parade.
“We were particularly delighted to see our local Indian, Pakistani, Polish, Latvian and our Ukrainian friends taking part. The blue and yellow Ukrainian flags reminded us of all of the very real challenges facing those in our community who have been welcomed in truly awful times for their homeland.
“Of course, our local sporting clubs from cricket to hurling and Gaelic Games to our many martial arts clubs, have welcomed many of these new citizens to our city and flew the flag on Friday, along with so many other cultural and sporting groups.”
Kilkenny County Council director of services Tim Butler said the local authority was delighted with the festival programme.
“We were thrilled with the reaction of our many visitors to Kilkenny this weekend to our festivities,” he said. “We hosted the mayors of our twin towns, Malbork in Poland and our long-standing arrangement with Morêt sur Loing in France. They commented on constant improvements in our weekend festival and also on the standard of presentation of our city, which is testament to the brilliant work of our council staff and also volunteers from Keep Kilkenny Beautiful.
“We were particularly happy to have been selected by Fáilte Ireland as the place they brought a hugely important group of international tourism buyers, as part of their Meitheal programme. We were very reassured that the future attractiveness of our tourism industry benefited hugely from what those visitors saw and heard over the weekend.”
Speaking at the post-parade reception in Butler House, Ms Flannery made special mention of the staff who had worked so hard on the organisation of the weekend’s events.
“We have a very small team who have worked incredibly hard to make the St Patrick’s Festival Kilkenny a great national event. These include Jennifer Cooper, Cathy O’Connor, Paula Fleming and Laura Stapleton and Helena Hatton, and our Safety Officer, Anton Cullen, who ensured we did all we could to have a pleasant, yet safe and comfortable event for young and old.
“The festival is a municipal event and receives fantastic support from the staff of Kilkenny County Council at all levels and also from An Garda Síochána, Kilkenny Civil Defence and a great team of local volunteers, including members of St Brigid’s Camogie Club, Ballycallan.
“Of course, we had the ebullient Edward Hayden as our Grand Marshal. Edward has been a great friend of our festivals for years and a fantastic ambassador for Kilkenny at all times.
“The live broadcast by Virgin Media, with their Ireland AM show highlighting all aspects of the city and the festival added even more to the excellent media coverage we got from our local print and radio media outlets. We were particularly delighted that Edward’s proud Mum, Sally and his sister Anne got to join in the celebrations too.”
Ms Flannery said that after the committee and staff had reviewed the events of the weekend, planning would commence for 2024.
“We never rest on our laurels and we hope to be back bigger and even better next year,” she said. “We would encourage everybody who liked what they saw to move to the other side of the barriers and making next year’s parade even better.
A prize-giving ceremony for the parade category winners is to follow in the coming weeks.
Parade Float Category winners
l Most Creative and Entertaining: Jurassic Newpark.
l Best Young Person: Polish School of St John Paul II.
l Best Rural: Willie Joe Meally.
l Best School or Club Float: 15th Kilkenny Fort Grange Scouts.
l Best Interpretation of the Theme: Conahy Vintage Club.
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