How Tipperary volunteers make a St Patrick’s Day parade for thousands happen
As thousands prepare to line the streets of Tipperary town this St Patrick’s Day, a small group of volunteers are working behind the scenes to make sure the parade goes ahead.
Committee chairman and local councillor John O’Heney spoke to the Irish Independent about the challenges small town parades face when it comes to putting on events.
"The financial implications are that we have to raise some money within the community each year to run the parade successfully,” he explained.
While Tipperary County Council offer grants of €2,500 to parade committees, with costs for insurance, among other things skyrocketing, Cllr O’Heney says that there is a financial shortfall every year that needs to be made up.
"We are very grateful for that grant, it’s a significant sum of money, and only for the grant, the parade probably wouldn’t be able to take place,” he said.
"Normally, we might have a shortfall of around €1,200 to €1,500. If we can raise more money, then we can provide more activities on the day, but this year in particular, we’ve been very lucky with sponsorship."
Businesses across the community often make donations so that the parade can keep going every year, including local publicans, financial institutions, and private companies.
"We’re very lucky that there’s a very generous community spirit in Tipperary town when it comes to St Patrick’s Day, because it’s a festival in the town that’s always held a special place for people.
"No matter what the weather conditions on the day are like, there’s normally a very large crowd at the parade, it’s one of the largest parades in the county,” Cllr O’Heney said.
The annual parade attracts between 3,000 and 5,000 people into the town centre each year, and the support from the community each year is what keeps the committee motivated each year.
The committee is made up entirely of volunteers, and has a core group of between eight and 10 people. Cllr O’Heney has been the chairman of the committee for the last three years, before he was elected as a councillor.
"We’re a voluntary committee, we’re all working, we all have other commitments, family commitments, work commitments, so each year we get together at the end of January and for six or eight weeks we put our shoulder to the wheel and try to get the parade organised for the people in the area,” John explained.
Attracting new volunteers can be an issue, Cllr O’Heney said, but he added that he is incredibly grateful for the volunteers that come back each year and help to organise the parade, as well as those who show up on the day to help with road closures and setting up ropes and barriers along the parade route.
“It’s very difficult to get people to volunteer on committees, and we’re probably no different, but we’re very lucky since Covid-19 we’ve had a strong eight or 10 people who would have stuck with this committee over the last four or five years.
"We rejuvenated the parade and got it back going after a couple of years’ absence during Covid, so we’ve had three or four very successful parades, and we’re very lucky that there is a dedicated bunch of people in the area that do come out each year.
"While we’re a small committee, we’re a very hard-working committee, and each year the committee changes a bit with people having family commitments or different things that crop up, but there’s no pressure from us for anyone, we’re delighted to have everyone, and it’s very much an open door policy,” John said.
The committee usually meets one evening a week from January until St Patrick’s Day. They meet in the pubs around the town, attempting to share a bit of business between the various establishments.
"The one thing about St Patrick’s Day is that it’s not majorly time-consuming,” Cllr O’Heney explained.
"We give our heart and our soul to it for six or eight weeks, and then it’s done, and we’re able to move on for the rest of the year to other different things and back to our own lives again,” he said.
There is great satisfaction of seeing the parade come together each year, according to the committee chairman, and seeing thousands of happy faces lining the streets makes the hard work in planning the parade worth it.
"It’s been a very successful parade in the town over the last few years, and it’s very well supported, so it’s just trying to keep the momentum going.
"It would be terrible not to have a parade in the town, but obviously, it’s down to a small working group of people who try to keep it going,” he added.
A particular highlight of the new committee was when a 300-strong marching band from America travelled to Ireland to take part in the St Patrick’s Day celebrations, John said.
In 2024, the Marching Mizzou band from the University of Missouri filled the streets of Tipperary town with colour, music and dancers, in what was the biggest parade the town has ever seen.
The band were in Ireland to take part in the Dublin St Patrick’s Day parade on March 17, and wanted to take in Tipperary town as the band’s signature song is ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’, in collaboration with the town’s own CJ Kickham Brass and Reed Band.
"The Marching Mizzou was a great success, but each year brings its own highlights,” Cllr O’Heney said.
“I was amazed by the crowd that turned up last year, it was kind of unexpected, there was huge crowds around the town that day. Maybe an hour before the parade it wasn’t that busy around, but in the half an hour leading up to the parade, thousands of people lined the streets.
"That gives you great satisfaction when you put a lot of work into something, and all the committee put a lot of work into something, to see the community support the event on the day is great,” he said.
The theme of this year’s parade is the parade of champions, which will celebrate the achievements of local sports clubs and people from all walks of life.
"We noticed in our first few meetings that there was a lot of success locally in the past few months in all walks of life, not just in sport,” Cllr O’Heney said.
"So we said we’d try and approach different people in the area that had won things over the year to bring in their trophies to show off.
"We have clubs like Golden-Kilfeacle, Knockavilla-Donaskeigh Kickhams, Arravale Rovers, St Anne’s Secondary School, Kilfeacle Rugby Club, the ladies golf club in Tipperary town, we have Frank O’Dwyer from the Special Olympics, and we’re very lucky to have some of the Tipperary hurlers in the area who are coming too, so it’ll be a nice event,” he explained.
The parade this year will take place on St Patrick’s Day itself, Tuesday, March 17, and will get underway from 2.30pm.
"It’s on an unusual day this year, a Tuesday, so we just decided to stick to the day itself, we didn’t overcomplicate it, so we said we’d celebrate it on the day,” Cllr O’Heney said.
"When it comes to St Patrick’s Day, people just like to celebrate it on the day, and we do as well within the committee.”
Despite the challenges or running a committee and organising the parade, John says the end result makes it worth it.
"While there is some challenges in running the committee and getting things up and running, it is very satisfactory to see it all come together in the weeks leading up to it, and then on the day. But we’re just very grateful to the group of volunteers, that we have, it wouldn’t take place only for the committee that we have each year,” he added.