Don’t rain on our parades!
Money to back St Patrick’s Day events will need to be voted through by county councillors if the thirst for street festivities is to be quenched, it has emerged.
Festival organisers are eager to make the most of the extra bank holiday this year with planning well underway for the county’s first parades since 2019.
The lifting of COVID-19 restrictions last week, coupled with a four-day weekend for most workers, has paved the way for a bumper St Patrick’s Day celebration. However organisers have flagged their reluctance to push hard-hit businesses such as publicans and hoteliers to support the events and are looking to the local authority to roll in.
Kingscourt is one of the towns aiming to capitalise on the March 17 and 18 bank holidays with two days of festivities already in the works. However plans are yet to be finalised.
“We have met twice already and we’re in the middle of putting it together,” said local councillor Clifford Kelly, “with the bank holiday we’re looking at doing something on the Friday too. There’s great enthusiasm in getting it going.”
It’s expected a parade will also be held in Ballyconnell this year. The organising committee is to meet in the coming weeks with a view to getting planning underway in earnest.
Cavan Town too is hoping to capitalise on the lifting of restrictions. Local publican Peter McGinnity is a volunteer with the county town’s parades committee and is optimistic that festivities befitting the occasion can be organised. “It’d be great to do something. It’s not for a lack of wanting to get something done. I can imagine this year with the extra bank holiday there’ll be an appetite for it anyway. We had been waiting to see where we’re going to be standing in terms of restrictions. Sure it’d be great to do something.”
However, funding for a parade or other events is expected to be a barrier.
“It’ll probably be reliant on funding though. It’ll be a hard sell to go knocking on business’s doors and looking for money off them when everybody’s had such a tough couple of years. I’m not sure how we’re going to be helped by the council with funding. They were very good to us over the years. I don’t know what the situation is going to be because we’ve gone two years without it so it’d nearly be like starting again.”
However, the County Council have explained that the councillors will need to take the initiative if St Patrick’s Day festival funding is to be found.
“Cavan County Council doesn’t have a funding scheme for St. Patricks Day parades and have no plans at present to introduce a scheme of this nature. Any initiative to fund St Patricks Day parades would have to be agreed by the elected members of Cavan County Council and the funding would have to be taken from existing grant schemes and budgets.”