Kilkenny to celebrate its Legends and Stories on St. Patrick’s Day
Kilkenny city’s streets will come alive this St. Patrick’s week with the return of St. Patrick’s Festival Kilkenny March 15th – 19th . Following on from a hugely successful return to the streets in 2022 the Festival is bringing another huge programme of events to the people of Kilkenny and it’s visitors. The feature of the festival will be the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Lá le Pádraig, March 17th. Bringing Kilkenny’s streets to life the St. Patrick’s Day parade will focus on the legendary figures and stories of the past, present and future. Community, sporting, artistic and school groups will be asked to put their imaginations to work in focusing on the Legends and Stories theme. These can involve legends and stories from local communities or larger than life figures and episodes from the city and county’s history and folklore and groups can compete for the prizes available to all who take part.
Groups representing Kilkenny’s new communities, including the Ukrainian community will be welcome to introduce us to their own national Legends and Stories also.
Chairperson of Kilkenny St. Patrick’s Day parade, Cllr. Joe Malone said they were looking forward to seeing a new twist on the St. Patrick’s Day theme:
“ We all know that the story of St. Patrick arriving in Ireland from our neighbouring Celtic nation in Wales and later coming back to convert the Irish people to Christianity is one of our greatest ever stories. There are many others, before and after the time of Patrick, that have inspired us all down through the years. Our stories and legends are part of what we are and are central to our celebration of our national holiday.
We are encouraging people and groups to let their imagination run wild in coming up with colourful, entertaining and creative ways of bringing these figures and stories to the thousands of local and visiting spectators on St. Patrick’s Day.”
Festival Manager, Marian Flannery, called on people to start the work as soon as they can:
“The application form for groups taking part is now live at https://stpatricksfestivalkilkenny.com/parade-application-form-2023/ and we would encourage people to get their application in and their thinking and creative hats on. We look forward to welcoming back regular participants but we are also always looking for new groups to give it a try and join in the fun. Ní neart go cur le chéile. “
