Athlone Croi na hÉireann Festival hailed a "major success"

Town Mayor, Cllr Frankie Keena, has hailed the "major success" of the Athlone Croi na hÉireann Festival.

The festival culminated with the hosting of an extremely well supported St Patrick's Day parade on the national feast day with noticeable engagement from the local community being a prominent feature of the five day event.

Such parade engagement from local sporting groups and community organisations was duly recognised by the judging committee who deemed Garrycastle GAA worthy of first prize for their colourful entry. Athlone Karate Club was awarded second prize, while St Peter's FC and Wings Rhythmic Gymnastics shared the third place accolade.

"There were over 2,000 participants in this year's St. Patrick’s Day parade all of whom grasped the opportunity to showcase their excellent talents and skills through their respective clubs and organisations. In addition, it was great to see the streets thronged with over 7,000 people eager to get a vantage viewing point. It was just a great heart lifting day," Cllr Keena said.

The Town Mayor serves as treasurer on the Croi na hÉireann Festival committee and expressed his gratitude to all those who made the event a success.

"We were delighted with the turnout for the festival which adds to the economic benefit for the town. The provision of these festivals is two fold, to provide entertainment for the local population and tourists and also to support our business community. We are very aware that the various events attracted both national and international tourists to the town for the weekend," Cllr Keena said.

Meanwhile, Festival chairman, John Henson stated that the festival was a "dream" from an organisational point of view.

"This was probably the best attended St. Patrick’s Day parade and all the programme of events proved a success, thanks to our hard working voluntary parade committee

"Like a jigsaw, the festival requires a lot of pieces to be put in place in order to complete the picture. We have received massive help and encouragement from across the full spectrum of our community and we are very grateful for it

"When you have a huge gathering of young people, their coaches, mentors , parents and spectators all singing, dancing and laughing through the streets of Athlone, you know the event has been a success," Mr Henson concluded.