THE organisers of the Enniskillen St Patrick’s Day celebrations have said no one is more disappointed than they are that this year’s county parade will not be going ahead.
The hard working team of local volunteers, which has been organising the phenomenally popular parade for the past decade, made the sad announcement this morning (Wednesday) that it had taken the decision not to go ahead with this year’s event.
The team at Project St Patrick had initially planned a “scaled back” return of the parade and fun day, which in the past has attracted in the region of 15,000 revellers to the county town, for this year but had advised that it needed more participation from the community “in order to do it justice.”
It had warned the continued challenges of getting back together after such a long period of restrictions had been impacting the level of participation this year.
This morning, the committee confirmed it had been unable to secure enough involvement to ensure it could keep spectators entertained at the celebrations.
“It is with genuine reluctance that the voluntary committee of Project St Patrick must announce that there will be no county parade this year in Enniskillen,” said a spokeswoman.
“Given the lateness of the hour of restrictions lifting, coupled with the sense of unease which still remains amongst the community, we were unable to bring you the quality of floats you have become accustomed to.
“Bands have not been practicing, groups not meeting and schools and businesses don’t know what one day will look like to the next. Covid has left almost everyone understandably non-committal.
“No-one is as disappointed as us but we did not want to let you down, even with a scaled back event.”
The team have vowed to bring the festival back with a bang next year, however, and encouraged the community to get involved.
“We want to thank those groups that did get in touch, we trust your enthusiasm rolls over to 2023 because we are pledging to start planning now for next year to come back bigger and better than ever before with a festival to meet all expectations,” said the spokeswoman.
“Hopefully Enniskillen will also be looking its finest and will provide a fitting backdrop for an event we can all be proud of.
“To pull this off, we will need many volunteers on the day and are always welcoming of new community spirited members to our committee, so please get in touch if it’s something you’d like to be part of.”
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