Ballymahon’s St Patrick’s Day Parade to build on success of last year's spectacle

Irish Myths and Legends will be the theme for Ballymahon’s St Patrick’s Day parade as it gets underway on Friday, March 17 at 4pm.

The local parade organisers hope this year's St Patrick's day celebrations will have as many fun activities and events as the hugely successful festivities of last year.

Excitement is building in Ballymahon as businesses, schools and community groups prepare their floats for the community event.

The parade, as always, will feature a host of floats and groups marching from Creevaghbeg road up the town’s Main Street, past the reviewing stand at Finnegan's Garage.

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Cllr Pat O’Toole of the Ballymahon St Patrick’s Day Parade organising committee said this year’s festivities will have something for everyone.

“We are really looking forward to it,” Pat told The Leader, “We had a great turn out last year. The two year gap because of Covid gave people a great appetite for the community gathering. Last year was arguably the best parade we ever had in Ballymahon. Hopefully we will have a repeat of that success this year.”

Pat says the town gets many benefits from the parade: “It was estimated there were around 3,500 people in Ballymahon on St Patrick's Day last year. That additional footfall is huge for the businesses in the area. Fingers crossed that we will get there again.

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He commended all the effort going into the floats: “We have up to eight schools taking part, that is two more than last year. Normally we get around 35 to 40 floats. We don't do advanced bookings. Longford is at 1pm, Lanesboro is at 2:30pm, so we can get some of the floats that took part in those parades to come to Ballymahon.”

The organisers reward the participant's efforts: “There are awards for the Best Overall, Best New Entry, and closest to our theme of Irish Myths and Legends . We are environmentally conscious , so we will reward floats that have an eco theme. We also have the best shop window display.”

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Music is very much a part of the day: “We are lucky to have three bands playing in the parade. Longford Pipe Band lead off, the Athlone Pipe band, and Manorcunningham pipe band from Donegal will join us again this year, as they have for quite a number of years. We will have Longford ONE leading off the parade. It will be very colourful. There is a lot of work going into the floats.”

Grand marshal for the 2023 Ballymahon parade will be Michael Farrell Snr: “He was the last Lord Mayor of Ballymahon. A number of years ago The Tidy Towns and Town Twinning committees had a competition to raise funds and Michael won it, he will be our grand marshal for this year,” Pat concluded.