Cique de Cavan

CAF Review: Carnival School Community Parade

There are some afternoons where the world seems to shrug off its own gravity. Saturday at Con Smith Park was one of them. Rain spat down in stubborn little bursts, but nobody cared. If anything, the damp only made the colours appear louder, the drum thumps heavier, and the whole Carnival School Community Parade feel even more gloriously alive.

It arrived like a cheese dream with glitter boots on. Long-Legs Sheila (Caoimhe Dunn) the Curious Heron lurched while samba rhythms ricocheted off the soaked tarmacadam pathways. Stilt walkers towered like benevolent aliens, and jugglers dropped nothing, kids stood slack-jawed, while parents spun helplessly from spectacle to spectacle, phones aloft, trying to capture this creative lightning on a six-inch screen.

Leading it all was Maria Corcoran- circus artist, catalyst, and conductor of this beautiful chaos. Through months of workshops at the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre, her Lifelong Learning Carnival School and Circo Coranco project, helped transform curiosity into confidence, hesitation into pure performance.

And then there was Con Horgan- DJ Two Eyes himself- hero of Sunday's Pedal Parade, riding his latest manifestation, the Disco Mower through the madness like some postmodern discoball helmet wearing folk hero.

For about an hour Con Smith Park became Rio by way of Cavan: drenched, delirious, utterly mesmerising. SE.