ST. PATRICK’S FESTIVAL PARADE MONDAY 17TH MARCH FREE EVENT
Where: Parnell Square, Dublin 1 Time: Starting at 12pm For the first time in its history, using Ireland’s commemorative era as inspiration, St. Patrick’s Festival has created a three-year theme and narrative for the Festival Parade. The thematic journey of ‘Past, Present and Future’ will be explored respectively in the period 2014, 2015 and 2016. This year’s Festival Parade theme, ‘Let’s Make History’, draws on the ‘Past’ and is the first step on this exciting, creative journey. Ireland’s leading pageant companies will bring this year’s theme to life in their own inimitable style. Music from international and Irish marching bands will provide the uplifting soundtrack. In 2015 we will explore our ‘Present’, which leads us into 2016, where we look to the ‘Future’ when the Festival will pose the question, ‘who do we aspire to be in the next 100 years?’ Parade route map available at www.stpatricksfestival.ie Official Vehicle Partner of St. Patrick’s Festival
THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF – 1000 YEARS ON BY SPRAOI
THE MERMAN’S TALE BY INISHOWEN CARNIVAL GROUP
Even though it was a thousand years ago, who would your allegiance lie with - the King of Dublin and his assorted reinforcements from Scotland and the Isle of Man and other Viking strongholds? Or would you support that King of the Culchies, Brian Boru, all the way up from Killaloe? It’s a tough decision for true Dubliners to make.
Taking inspiration from the traditional Irish story “The Merman’s Tale” in which a fisherman meets a merman, and discovers that the merman has trapped the souls of shipwrecked sailors in lobster pot cages under the sea. The fisherman outwits the merman, swims down to the lobster pots and sets the souls free.
Leinster and Munster, blue and red, land and sea - Spraoi have taken inspiration from all these opposing ideas, interweaving them to mark the millennium anniversary of this battle, for control of the prize, that is Dublin!
The pageant will feature 100 performers from across Inishowen and Donegal, including wave dancers, a huge merman puppet, the merman’s house and a lighthouse, signifying hope as the souls are set free.
Spraoi is a well-established street theatre company based in Waterford city, best known for the annual Spraoi Festival, which takes over the city centre of Waterford for the entire August Bank Holiday Weekend, attracting audiences in excess of 80,000 people. 2014 marks Spraoi’s eighteenth appearance in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Based near Malin Town in the beautiful peninsula of Inishowen, Co. Donegal, Inishowen Carnival Group, under the artistic direction of Kevin O’ Neill, have performed annually at the St. Patrick’s Festival, Dublin since 1996 and take part regularly in festivals and events across Ireland and beyond.