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Motorists advised to respect parking clearways along city parade route
Galway Bay fm newsroom – Motorists are advised to respect clearways and avoid parking in parade route areas such as Eglington Street ahead of the St. Patrick’s Day procession tomorrow.
Organisers are expecting some 30 thousand spectators to attend the highly anticipated event.*
The city parade will kick off at 11.30am with 2019 marking the 117th anniversary of the Galway event.
The theme of this years parade is ‘diversity’ and the parade will feature an array of community, cultural, sporting and international groups including Ireland’s pioneering spectacle theatre company Macnas.
The shortened parade route will begin from NUIG Quadrangle, continue along University Road, over Salmon Weir bridge, along Eglington Street, Williamsgate Street and Eyre Square North finishing at Prospect Hill.
Gardai have advised motorists to avoid parking in areas such as Eglington Street to avoid issues with crowd congestion.
As part of the city event, Eyre Square will also host an outdoor village with vintage amusements and family activities.
Paralympic champion Eoghan Clifford and para-athlete Shane Curran will lead the parade.
Eoghan Clifford announced his retirement in 2018 following a cycling career which has seen him claim Paralympic and World Cup gold medals.
Para-athlete Shane Curran, recently returned from the IWAS World Games in the United Arab Emirates in February with a silver medal in the shot putt.
As well as being a member of the Galway Speeders, he participates in many other sports including wheelchair hurling and basketball, para cycling and para rowing.
To the county and the Athenry parade kicks off at 11.45 after mass with a theme based on fish and water.
Spiddal parade will also kick off at 11.45 after mass.
This is followed by Mountbellew where the parade kicks off at midday with Tuam Stars gymnasts entertaining the crowd in the square beforehand.
In Gort, the parade begins from Church Street at 12.30 and will be led by Grand Marshal Joe Healy, the President of the IFA.
In Craughwell, a mini parade will get underway at 12.30 with a ‘shake-your-shamrock’ fun run for kids.
The parade in Dunmore will also have a 12.30 start from the national school, while the parade in Oughterard gets underway at 1 with celebrations continuing until 3pm.
The parade in Cong gets underway at 12.30.
The parade in Headford begins at 12.45 but for early arrivals there will be music in the square by Drumadore as well as a kids’ tractor run.
Kinvara’s parade gets underway at 1 with the theme this year focused on Irish legends and folklore, while a special prize will be awarded for the shiniest tractor.
In Loughrea, the parade begins from Barrack Street at 1pm with a theme based on ‘reduce, reuse and recycle.
In Tuam, the parade gets underway at 1.45 with this year’s theme ‘Go Green for Tuam’s wellbeing’.
In Ballinasloe, the parade kicks off at 2 from the Fair Green with prizes to be awarded across five categories.
The Moycullen parade also has a start time of 2pm from Sweeneys with a theme of ‘Moycullen through the years’.
Oranmore will host the last of Galway’s parades with the floats taking to the streets at 3.30pm from Joyce’s carpark at Oran Town Centre.
A number of other towns and villages are marking the national day with community festivals.
Claregalway’s activities will be based at an all-weather tent in the courtyard at the rear of Hughes Supervalu from noon to 3.30.
Salthill is hosting a family fun day with activities getting underway at 12.30 at the outdoor stage in front of Seapoint.
In Aughrim, the parade will take place on bank holiday Monday at 4pm.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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