Parades due to go ahead despite national hysteria
ST Patrick’s Day parades in towns and villages across the county will go ahead, unless instructed by the Government to cancel.
Several countries on the European continent have taken the step of banning large gatherings of people in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus. At the time of going to print, the Irish Government had not yet made a decision about restricting the size of crowds.
A spokesperson for the Wicklow parade committee said on Monday that the parade was going ahead as planned at the moment unless and until official direction is received to cancel the event. This year, no groups were due to travel from abroad to join the parade.
The Wicklow parade committee said they are monitoring the situation and further meetings are scheduled for later this week.
Speaking on Friday, the committee for the St Patrick’s Day parade in Arklow said they had not received any advice to cancel and were planning to go ahead with the parade. No groups are scheduled to travel from abroad to take part in this year’s event.
In Bray, a spokesperson for the St Patrick’s Committee said in a statement to this paper, that they are ‘concerned’ but ‘planning as usual until we get official direction from the HSE otherwise’.
If the committee receive an instruction to cancel the parade, they are hoping to ‘be able to go ahead with the smaller events we have planned’ for the festival in Bray.
The spokesperson added that one band is due to travel from the UK to take part in the Bray parade with other bands from Dublin or the local area. None have cancelled yet.
The Greystones parade will also go ahead, unless instruction is received from the Government to cancel.
The planned parade in Baltinglass is still scheduled to go ahead. It is set to attract visitors to enjoy the parade and visit food stalls.
Meanwhile, the Arklow Music Festival is also going ahead, but ‘if we’re given a direction to cancel, we will,’ said Jo Walker,