Carrick-on-Suir's St Patrick's Day Parade Committee appeals for volunteers and funding

Carrick-on-Suir St Patrick’s Day Parade Committee has appealed for more volunteers and the local business community to come on board to help organise this year’s pageant, provide sponsorship or run a fundraiser for the event.

The town’s St Patrick’s Day Parade will start at 1pm on March 17 and will start from the vicinity of the Tirlán Co-Op in Carrickbeg.

But the organising committee has revealed it’s struggling with the costs of staging the parade and a lack of volunteers and “it needs the public’s and business community’s assistance this year more than ever”. The committee currently comprises just four volunteers.

In a statement posted on Carrick’s St Patrick’s Day Parade Facebook page, the committee announced Explore Carrick-on-Suir tourism initiative that assisted with hosting the 2025 parade will not be involved with this year’s event.

It thanked Explore Carrick-on-Suir “whole heartedly” for the “time, effort and expense” it put into making last year’s parade such a success. The committee wrote that during an “open and frank meeting” of its members “the cold hard facts of putting on the parade were laid bare”.

“Ever increasing costs and lack of funding make it very difficult to keep going with our annual event and although the idea of not holding a parade was raised, it was quickly dismissed as we felt the momentum built up by the group going back over a decade could not just be suddenly stopped.

“We have hosted nighttime parades, fireworks, parades on different days, and many other unique and varied themes that have delighted thousands of visitors and locals, and it would be a shame to not carry on celebrating our national holiday. We are seeking the public’s and the business community’s assistance this year more than ever.

“Out of a population of some 6,000 people our committee consists of just four individuals, so to try and organise fundraisers on top of the normal parade work is a non-runner.

“If anybody would like to help us out and run a fundraiser we would be delighted with the help.

“And if anybody would like to come on board and help us out with the day itself, please contact any of the committee.”

The St Patrick’s Day Parade Committee noted the number of people visiting the town increases dramatically every year for the parade

“It would be fantastic to see some of the businesses who benefit financially from this extra trade put their hands in their pockets and assist the organisers with the costs of insurance, hiring amusements, stalls etc.”

The starting point for the parade has for many years been the council car park next to Carrick-on-Suir Library at Greenside but this year’s parade will leave from the area by the Tirlán Co-op in Carrickbeg. The pageant will travel across Dillon Bridge, down Main Street, through the West Gate, down Kickham Street and turn right onto the N24 finishing at the Library Car Park.

Well-known local sporting figures such as Shamrock Rovers star Lee Grace, All-Ireland boxing champion Chantelle Robinson, Special Olympics athletes and Joseph OBriens Carriganóg Racing Stables have been the parade’s grand in recent years.

The committee plans to continue this tradition and will announce the 2026 parade grand marshals in the coming weeks.

“We have an abundance of talent in our town and our biggest issue has always been deciding just who should be put front and centre. This year with so much local success we decided not to whittle down our success stories, but rather embrace and highlight them all,” the committee explained.

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“More details of the parade will be released in the coming weeks and our committee is busy reaching out to all of the local groups and organisations in the area, ensuring a bumper number of participants for 2026.”