Mullingar Agricultural Show wins best float at Mullingar St Patrick's Day Parade
The Mullingar St Patrick’s Day Parade made a welcome return to the town this year. There was a great sense of excitement at the return of the parade as evident by the number of people lining the parade route. Over 60 participants assembled in readiness for the start of a parade, which had been missing from the streets for the past five years.
Winning Floats
The winning floats were chosen by four judges who were situated on the viewing stand at Dominick Street on the day.
First place went to Mullingar Agricultural Show. The entry contained live animals, committee members, rosette winners and loads of smiles. A reminder too that the Mullingar Agricultural Show will be held on Sunday, July 9th. It was a delight to see many members of their committee turn up to receive their presentation at the Market House.
Second place went to the Mullingar Indian Association who had over 80 participants in their entry with great colours, music and dancing. They showcased their Indian culture with many displays and reflected their efforts in fighting Covid-19 with many of them being healthcare workers here in Mullingar. They also displayed their Cricket team abilities much to the spectator’s applause and featured their drumming band.
Local firm Writech won third place for their entry, which included a convoy of vehicles and a truck with employees and kids containing a pressure pump which sprayed water to much of the crowd and provide sweets to passing kids. Employees made a real team effort and got involved in this year’s parade. Writech provides, maintains and instal Fire Protection solutions in Ireland, the UK and throughout Europe. Writech's HQ is located in Mullingar and they currently employ over 480 globally.
The committee were also delighted to welcome Sinead Hussey, RTE’s midlands correspondent, with the town featured on the RTE News at 6pm and again at 9pm on St. Patrick’s evening. It was great to see the town and the members of the community featured in such a positive way and it was a very welcome boost for the town.
Mullingar’s St Patrick’s Day Committee wish to thank all participants, sponsors, their Grand Marshal - Ben Dolan, Music Generation, volunteers, safety officer – Gerry Brennan, John Connelly & Sons Construction, Mullingar Civil Defence, Mullingar Tidy Towns, Mullingar Gardai Unit, Johnny Jones (electrician), the Order of Malta, Wallace Recycling, members of Dominick Street team, Brendan Reilly Transport, Brian Masterson (photographer) and the whole community of Mullingar. They would also like to thank Mullingar Town Band, IWIA Royal Canal Branch, Mullingar Canoe Club and Bartle Darcy for their participation in their St Patrick’s Day Eve Flotilla. The committee would especially like to thank Westmeath County Council for all of their support in the lead up to, during and after the event. Pat Kavanagh and team laid out the traffic management plan and liaised with the Gardaí in the lead up to the event, they provided signage and VMS signs on all routes into town and provided clean up of route immediately after the parade. The committee will also receive part of the Westmeath County Council's festivals and event grant for 2023.
Speaking about the parade, Aisling Coleman, co-event controller for the festival, said “As a committee, we came together in November 2022 and set out to bring the parade back to Mullingar. We were overwhelmed with the support from the local community and, with more time to organise, we are already greatly anticipating an even better event for 2024”
A huge well done to all committee members Ruth Illingworth, Hazel Smyth, Eoghan Murray, James Bourke, Aisling Coleman, Daniel Boyne, Ray Dolan, Seamus Dunne, Mark O’Hara and Robert Troy.
The committee have already held meetings to discuss the 2024 St Patrick's Festival in Mullingar and are hoping for more participants in their parade. If you would like to be involved next year, email mullingarstpatricksday@gmail.com