Celebrating all things Kingscourt on St Patrick's Day
A Kingscourt couple produced a video to mark St Patrick's Day in the town. The 15-minute production includes more than 250 photos of locals as well as drone footage from the area.
Martin Hickey and his wife, Shaunagh, created the virtual parade of sorts to lift the spirits of local people who were being denied their local parade for the second year in a row due to COVID-19 and public health concerns. They also wanted to reach out to people from Kingscourt all over the world who may have been feeling homesick on St Patrick's Day - their national feast day.
Speaking to the Celt, Martin explained where the inspiration for the video came from.
“Shaunagh is a stay at home mother. When the pandemic hit last year she, along with a friend of hers, set up a Facebook group called Kingscourt Covid Support. They posted information about Covid. It was a resource that allowed people to stay connected during the first lockdown. People used to to chip in doing jobs like collections groceries, prescriptions for the vulnerable.
“When the first wave died down, they changed the name of the group to Kingscourt Community Information. There are now about 2,000 members. It's an information portal that lets people know about local businesses, what is happening in the community and people having a bit of craic," Martin said.
Three weeks ago Shaunagh came up with the idea of the virtual parade.
Martin adds: "Shooting drone footage is a hobby I took up during the lockdown. The idea was first to do a group photo of the town. Between the two of us we came up with the idea for the video.
“We got people to send in the photos. Before we knew it we had 250 pictures, from all over. We put it together, put it up on YouTube and posted to the different social media outlets and we got a great response.
“When I knew we were doing the video, I went out and shot a few locations in the area. I brought the local clubs, The Kingscourt Harps, The Kingscourt Stars, The local handball and racket ball clubs, into it. I also shot local landmarks like Dun Ni Ri Forest Park, Loughanleagh Mountain, things like that places that if you are watching in Christchurch in New Zealand, Sidney in Australia or New Your in America it might make you feel at home.”