All on a spin of the wheel!
SQUARE BECOMES A CASINO FOR SUPER SATURDAY
Red or black? Bill or Ben? Red for Louth? Black for Dundalk? The choice was simple for shoppers hoping to win a €5,000 prize in radio roulette, the centrepiece of Super Saturday and Dundalk Independent Traders’ Day.
Given how much sunburnt flesh which was on show at the Market Square, perhaps ‘red’ was the way to go.
Around 200 people tried their luck, after entering the competition through LMFM or by turning up with proof of purchase from one of the town centre shops.
Just like the casino game of roulette, the players had to pick one of the colours, and take their place in the appropriate pen. Two trial spins of the wheel came up ‘red’. ‘Do any of you want to change?’ teased LMFM’s Pat O’Shaughnessy, who, on this day of two colours, earned a black mark for name-checking Tesco!
One man did want to switch, bolting to the dark side, believing there couldn’t be three reds in a row. There could.
The next two spins came up ‘ black’, and sud- denly we were left with 13 survivors. Unlucky for some!
Another ‘red’, followed by a ‘ black’, and just two were left standing - Jackie Keenan from Inniskeen, and another lady, Kilcurry resident, Shirley Haughey. A big decision to be made. ‘I know what I’d do,’ muttered a middle-aged man, squeezed - or, as a colleague says, ‘ bate’ - into a Manchester United jersey, red, of course, a tip in itself. ‘What’s that, chief ?’ ‘Split it between the two of us.’ Now, now, we play to win here. Jackie did indeed pick ‘red’, and was rewarded with the big prize of €5,000 worth of vouchers.
Town centre manager, Martin McElligott, did the honours for the final spin of the wheel, and expressed himself pleased with events.
‘It’s a good start. We hope to gain momentum from this for next year.’
Next year will see Independent Traders’ Day form a big part of a revived Maytime Festival by Dundalk BIDS, which is planned to bring more people into the centre of town, and so boost business.
Away from the roulette, the square had stalls, selling everything from books, clothing and jewellery, to handmade Irish truffles, cakes, pastries and cheese.
The ubiquitous bouncy castles and slides were as popular as ever.
And the Brown Bull of Cooley, was patiently waiting the arrival of the Táin march.