Freezing temperatures fail to deter hardy folk
FREEZING temperatures didn’t stop the hardy people of Coolgreany from turning up to enjoy their annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday.
The Grand Marshal of the event was esteemed local resident Molly McDonald who is in her late 80’s.
‘It was very very cold and it did affect the turn-out and the number of entries as you can imagine with some people deciding it was enough to be going out later in the day for the match’, said secretary Imelda McCarthy.
‘Numbers were down but we still had a really good day. We had 30 entries when we would usually have between 30 and 50. The parade took about 45 minutes’, said Imelda who took part in the event herself as a member of The Late Bloomers, an imaginative group of older members of a local art group who made hobby horses and dressed up in costume for a day at the races.
‘We didn’t just dress up. We put on a performance’ she said. The group deservedly won the prize for ‘Most Original’ entry in the parade.
Pupils from Coolgreany national school staged a ‘snow protest’ calling for ‘No More Snow’ as the son of the Beast from the East hovered threateningly over the locality, making everyone shiver with the cold. The prize for Best Children’s Entry was won by Ballyflanigan Montessori.
The parade featured a large number of vintage vehicles including cars and old delivery truck with milk churns from a bygone era with the Vintage Trophy being won by Mulligans Dismantlers and Coolnagloose Dairies winning the prize for Best Vintage Display
Coolgreany attracts a sizeable number of entries from Arklow and this year, the Arklow Bay Hotel put on a wonderful Alice in Wonderland display with impressive props and costumes bringing fun and colour to a bleak day.
The Arklow Pipe Band which led the parade won the award for Best Marching Entry.
The award for Best Float was presented to RSS.
The judges were Tommy Tutty, John Doyle and Con O’ Driscoll.
‘We would like to thank everyone who turned up on such a cold day’, said Imelda, extending special gratitude to members of Coolgreany Johnstown Macra na Feirme who acted as stewards along with other local volunteers.
After the parade, there was a duck race in the river to raise money for Coolgreany Tidy Towns.
People then wasted no time in making their way to the Mayburn Trust community house where they chatted and warmed their hands on steaming cups of tea and coffee served with sandwiches and cakes.
Any sandwiches that were left over were delivered to the local pub in the evening.