PLANS are afoot to have an extra long St Patrick’s festival in Limerick this year after councillors voted to allocate an extra €30,000 in funding.
Members of the Metropolitan committee of Limerick City and County Council all supported a motion tabled by Cmhlr Séighin O Ceallaigh to allocate the extra funding.
The Limerick City East councillor told the meeting that this is “a unique opportunity as St Patrick’s Day falls on Sunday. We can have events on Saturday as well as Sunday and Monday and make the festival a three-day event.
“We want to make Limerick the place to be for St Patrick’s weekend,” he declared.
But the Sinn Fein councillor expressed his disappointment that the anniversary of the first moon landing and not the anniversary of the Limerick Soviet is to be the theme of the parade.
“It’s a real pity the Soviet will not play a part in it. It was a very important event in Limerick’s history,” he told the meeting.
Limerick city west councillor, Sean Lynch (FF) agree with his council colleague.
“We want to make Limerick the alternative to Dublin for St Patrick’s Day celebrations and I want to compliment our Mayor, Cllr James Collins, who forfeited his trip to New York so that he could officiate on St Patrick’s Day celebrations here,” he added.
