Ballyvaughan’s finest, Mort O Loughlin, has been chosen to be the grand marshal of this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in Fanore.
Mort, who last year retired after 55 years of service as the local notes correspondent for The Clare Champion, has been a huge supporter of the parade over the years.
This year, the local organising committee could think of no one more fitting to oversee this year’s event.
“We have always had a great relationship with Mort. He has been a great supporter of the parade for many, many years and gave us great coverage in The Champion, both before and after the parade so we are delighted to be able to honour him,” said Anne Pilkington, co-organiser of this year’s parade.
“That is really what this is about, it is about honouring him and thanking him for all the support that he has given to us over the years.
“He came to every single parade that we ever had in Fanore and was there to take notes of who was doing what. He has given us great support.
“We are absolutely delighted that he will be grand marshal of this year’s parade and we hope that his health holds well and he will be able to come and attend on the day.”
Mort has been a huge supporter of the parade over the years and has attended every year since the Fanore parade was first established.
“It is people like Mort that bind the community together. He went about his business, gathering all the information in a very unassuming way and the information that he would produce would be as accurate as you could ask for,” continued Anne.
“He would never spell anyone’s name incorrectly, never had any inaccurate facts, he has a real attention to detail.
“He is a real community person who always wants to know what is going on in the locality so he can do his best to give it a bit of a boost and promote it through his work.
“Weeks before the parade he would ring me up every year to ask who had I coming that year, and what did we have in store. It wasn’t ever me ringing Mort, it was always him contacting me, he was always on the ball all of the time.”
This year’s Fanore parade promises to be another exciting event with a host of activities for all the family.
The parade will begin from the car park at Fanore Beach at 1pm.
It will include a contingent from local defence forces under Commandant Marie Morgan and will be led by piper Offally based Catriona Lloyd, who has led the Fanore parade each year since 2019.
Martin Driscoll will play the role of Saint Patrick and the joint MCs for the day will be Joe Queally and DJ John Carey.
There will be music in the village throughout the day and there will also be a raffle with a first prize of a €300 voucher from John O’Donnell General Merchant in Kinvara.
“We will have loads of music on stage, both before and during the parade from all our local musicians. Once the parade finishes, we will have Pat Costello and his band playing in O’Donohue’s until 6pm or 7pm,” said Anne.
The organisers of the Fanore St Patrick’s Day Parade have extended their appreciation to everyone who is taking part in the event this year.
As St Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, almost every parade in the country will take place on the day itself. This has created a huge demand for musicians and other groups to take part in parades this year.
Indeed, this is the first time in five years that St Patrick’s Day will take place on a Sunday.
North and West Clare will host a number of St Patrick Day parades this years.
One of the first will take place in Doonbeg where the theme this year will be “Going Back to Our Roots”. The event will kick off on Saturday, March 16, at 3.30pm.
Leading the parade will be the Tulla Pipe Band who will be joined by the Marching Band Escheschranzer who are coming from Switzerland.
Lisdoonvarna will also celebrate St Patrick’s Day a day earlier as the annual parade will take place on Saturday March 16 at 1pm.
The Doolin parade will gather at 1.30pm on Sunday and will begin at 2pm at Doolin Pier, from where participants will walk through Fisher Street and through Doolin to Roadford, finishing up at the Russell Community Centre.
The St Patrick’s Day parade in Ennistymon will take place on Sunday, March 17, at 3pm from Deerpark.
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and blogger who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.