ST PATRICK’S DAY PARADES
Thousands of Dundalk people stood quietly in the rain as Fr Mark O’Hagan, ADM St Patrick’s, prayed for the return of Blackrock man Mark Duffy and his two Irish Coastguard colleagues before the start of this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade.
The event, which was marred by bad weather, had the theme of TEAM Dundalk and Fr O’Hagan remembered Mr Duffy and the missing crew of Rescue 116 with a prayer to St Anthony and the release of four white balloons, symbolising Mr Duffy and his colleagues - Ciaran Duffy, Paul Ormsby and the late Dara Fitzpatrick. After a moment’s silence, the Irish Defence Force’s colour party started the parade, which featured over 40 organisations from the community, voluntary, sports, arts and education sectors and was MC’d by Mickey Duffy.
Paralympic medallist Eve McCrystal was the grand marshal and, accompanied by young members of her family, was cheered on as she was brought through the through Dundalk’s main streets, proudly wearing her Irish team wear.
She led the parade which included a specific TEAM Dundalk float carrying the SSE Airtricity Cup; the Joe Ward Cup along with numerous winners in their own fields including Irish dancing and tennis etc.
Judges made the following awards to this year’s entrants: 1st St Mary’s College; 2nd Friary Youth Club; 3rd Scoil Rince Mona Ni Rodaigh. Best float was Fyffes and best theme interpretation was Dance Kids.
It was decided to give the ‘ best team spirit award to a group of entrants who are constantly showing team spirit: Louth Civil Defence; Dundalk Fire Service; Order Of Malta and Dundalk Red Cross.
Following the parade and despite the rain, the Market Square area remained thronged with people all lining up to go on the many amusements in the Pelican Promotions family fun zone including huge slides, disco domes, bronco bulls, and much more.
Parade chairperson David Minto said the committee was happy with how the day went. He said: ‘ Thankfully the rain didn’t fall heavily enough to ruin the day. We were able to go ahead with all our plans and we were able to bring in mainly covered amusements to the Fun Zone so children weren’t disappointed.
‘We’re happy that the TEAM Dundalk was embraced by everyone taking part. I would like to thanks our sponsors – Fyffes; Louth County Council; Longwalk Shopping Centre; Dundalk Credit Union, Dundalk Chamber; Dundalk BIDS and Pelican Promotions and also Gardai and stewards for traffic and crowd control’.