The organising committee behind the Portlaoise St Patrick’s Day parade say they have a week to raise the necessary funds – or this year’s event will have to be cancelled.
In what is an ongoing battle for every St Patrick’s Day group around the country, the chairperson of the Portlaoise committee say they have less than €500 currently in their bank account – and it takes €10,000 to run the parade.
They need to take insurance out for the year – to cover both the day itself and all the work in the lead-up to it – and the deadline for paying this year’s premium is next Friday.
And they have also placed that deadline on deciding whether to go ahead with this year’s event.
In recent years a number of individuals have personally subsidized the parade to make up the deficit while also giving freely of their time.
“We need the support of the businesses in town,” says Monica Delaney, the committee’s chairperson and also owner of the well-known Maples creches in town.
“And we haven’t been getting enough support from the businesses. What other event can bring 10,000 people into the town for one occasion?
“We just cannot do it if we don’t have the money in place. I’ve been involved in this committee for the last 15 years and a lot of people have come and gone but if we don’t get the support, we are just going to have to pull the plug.
“I’ve been going to parades for over 50 years. The day is all about the children and it would be an absolute sin if Portlaoise didn’t have a parade.
“But that is going to happen. People always think that it will just go ahead – but it’s going to go by the wayside now if we don’t get the support.”
While the likes of Laois Hire have been extremely supportive of the St Patrick’s Day parade, supplying ladders free of charge and providing the rails that keep the crowd back at cost, increasing costs elsewhere are making it almost impossible to proceed.
Monica said: “Our insurance premium this year has doubled – and there has never even been one claim.
“In other years as well we would have started off with some money in the account from the previous year – which we made from the likes of the bouncing castles. But because the weather was so bad last year we didn’t make anything in that regard.”
St Patrick’s Day in Portlaoise will once again feature the Kia Series Streets of Portlaoise 5K road race which gets underway at 11am.
That has been followed directly by the parade in recent years and there is also the Ireland v England Six Nations game that evening.
If anyone is interested in helping out, they can contact Monica Delaney (086-6031425) or Paul Downey (085-7651443).
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