Patrick’s Day parade future now in doubt

The honorary grand marshal of last year's St Patrick's Day parade, Patrick Griffin, has appealed to the people of Athlone to “keep the parade alive”, after it emerged that no committee is in place to take over the running of the annual festivities.

The prospect of a St Patrick's Day parade taking place in Athlone this coming March appears to be slipping further out of reach, with the confirmation by the previous committee that no one has approached them to take it over. 
In a post on their ‘St Patricks Day Festival Athlone’ Facebook page last week, they said they had been receiving inquiries about the plans for this year. 
“We’ve gotten a few messages asking about this year’s parade. The 2019 committee announced after the parade last year that we were disbanding and were not organising another parade. 
“We did ask for people to come forward to organise the 2020 parade, and as such, no one has. So there is no parade being planned,” they said. 
“There is no committee in place. A new committee needs to be formed first. We need somebody to come forward to take leadership of the parade, someone with the time and resources to proactively set up a committee and plan the parade. 
“It’s not just organising a time and place, and hoping people show up, there is a lot of work involved,” they added. 
Several people added their comments to support the former committee and compliment last year's parade. 
Honorary grand marshal of the 2019 parade, Patrick Griffin from Providence, Rhode Island, appealed to the people of Athlone to keep the parade alive. 
“It’s much harder to resurrect the parade if you let it die. I know this [from] first hand experience as the Providence parade had died for three years before I got it going again... The hours of planning and commitment you guys did was amazing. 
“I was talking to people after the parade and they told me it was by far the best parade ever in Athlone... Please try and keep this wonderful parade alive,” he wrote. 
Anyone who wishes to get involved is encouraged to contact 'St Patricks Day Festival Athlone' on Facebook. 
All seven members of the previous committee resigned following last year's St Patrick's Day festival. 
The group had faced criticism from some sections of the community regarding the decision to hold the parade on Saturday March 16 rather than on St Patrick's Day.
Despite the date change the parade was widely acknowledged as one of the most successful events in recent years; however the committee stepped down in order to make room for “some new faces and different approaches”.
A small number of people expressed an interest at the time, but an official group or committee was never formed. 
In July, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke urged those interested to form a committee as soon as possible to get the ball rolling for the 2020 festivities. 
“I wouldn't like to think we would lose the St Patrick's Day parade, but I don't think it's good news,” he said at that time.