Diaspora, Exile and Emigration theme for 2017 Bundoran St Patrick’s Day Parade
Diaspora, Exile and Emigration theme for 2017 Bundoran St Patrick’s Day Parade
Remembering St Patrick as our first refugee of fame, and Ireland’s story of exile and emigration since his time will be central to this year’s Bundoran St Patrick’s Day Parade which takes place as usual on March 17th at 3:30pm in the seaside town.
Up on 10,000 spectators are expected to be in Bundoran on the day which is considered the traditional kick off of the tourist season and is anticipated to be extra busy this year as the national holiday falls on a Friday.
Parade Director John O’Connell explains that this year’s parade will be as big as ever before with a significant interest from participants over the past number of weeks ‘we look forward to welcoming community groups from the locality and we have had a number of groups new to the parade enquiring about taking part. Over seventy young people will display their performance skills as a result of a programme coordinated through the transition years at Magh Ene College and further developed by Dark Daughter Productions. We have again invested financially into the training of these youngsters with street performance and carnival skills that they can use for our parade and other events throughout the year. Spectators attending this year’s parade will not be disappointed.’
The parade will commence at 3:30pm on Friday March 17th from East End (junction of Sea Road and Main Street), continuing along Main Street before turning at the West End Playground and finishing at Magh Ene College, where refreshments will be served to participants.
2017 is also the 60th Anniversary of the closing of the Great Northern Railway line to Bundoran. As part of a series of commemorative events throughout the year, Bundoran Railway themed floats and entries will be enthusiastically welcomed.
Students from two American colleges – Central Arizona College and Metropolitan Community College, Nebraska, will also take part on the day.
For those not in Bundoran, the parade will be streamed live on the Discover Bundoran Facebook page with regular updates on the Discover Bundoran Snapchat feed throughout the day.
Groups interested in participating in this year’s parade are asked to contact John O’Connell at 086 2266799 or email stpatricksday@discoverbundoran.com – further details on events happening on the day can be found at www.discoverbundoran.com/stpatricksday
