Parades set to be cancelled
EMERGENCY MEETINGS TO TAKE PLACE FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT’S CALL FOR PARADES NOT TO OCCUR
ST Patrick’s Day parade committees across the district could see months of hard work come to nothing as parades are expected to be called off this week.
Yesterday, the Government called for the cancellation of all St Patrick’s Day parades in the country and the events in Wexford and Gorey have already been called off.
All parades in the district were due to go ahead as planned at the time of going to press. However, following on from the Government’s announcement, it now seems like that some, if not all, of those will not now go ahead. The organising committees of the Enniscorthy, Bunclody, Clonroche and the Harrow parades are all due to meet in the coming days
Meanwhile, organisers of the Hope & Dream 10 said yesterday (Monday) that they plan to go ahead with the event, although they will be monitoring the situation and the threat posed by the coronavirus.
THE future of the St Patrick’s Day parades throughout the Enniscorthy area has been called into question following the cancellation of a number of similar events nationally.
The parade in Gorey has already been cancelled and the organising committee of the parades in Enniscorthy, Bunclody, Clonroche and the Harrow are all due to meet in the coming days to make decisions on whether or not their respective events will go ahead as planned.
The decision to cancel the Gorey parade was made following a meeting of the organising committee yesterday afternoon.
Responding to concerns over the potential spread of the coronavirus at mass gatherings, the committee took the decision to cancel the parade immediately.
Meanwhile, organisers of the Carnew parade said they were discussing whether to go ahead with their annual
St Patrick’s Day celebrations. A spokesperson for the Coolgreaney parade said their celebrations on March 17 would continue as planned.
At this newspaper went to press the parades in the Enniscorthy area were all going ahead as planned, however, it’s very likely that one or all of those events could also be cancelled in the coming days.
The parades programme has been thrown into chaos as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and parade organisers are now working frantically to ascertain whether or not it’s safe for their events to go ahead.
While all of the parade committees wish to have their events take place they are agreed that public safety and the health and wellbeing of parade participants and onlookers are their priority.