Our Grand Marshal for 2023 was the wonderful actor and musician, Sorcha Furlong, a very popular Grand Marshal. She was in great demand during the day standing in for photos at the assembly point in Hillcrest and at the review stand in the village, and most important judging the parade entries. The Little Blue Heroes won the Grand Marshal prize having wowed both Sorcha and the crowd. The Little Blue Heroes are Maisie Crossan, Dylan Lester, Amelia Somers, Issacc Keenan, and Aoife mcQuillan. These honorary Gardai all live in Lucan and are attached to Lucan Garda Station with their Garda buddies Garda Anne Gabbett & Garda Donagh Hanrahan and all their colleagues in Lucan Garda Station. It’s their first time in the Lucan Parade, and they did a great job on duty with their Garda buddies.
The winners were presented with their prizes by Sorcha at the review stand. The groups performed all along the route and then gave outstanding performances viewed by our guests on the review stand, who are Deptuy Mayor South Dublin County Council Cllr. Joanna Tuffy, Inspector Aonghus Hussey of An Garda Síochána, Ms. Vania Lorenzo, wife of the Italian Ambassador to Ireland, and their son Diego, and other leaders from across the Lucan Community. “We are also very lucky in Lucan because we have over 47 different nationalities from all over the world living in the area. The colour and creativity that comes from such diverse citizens is spectacular and it’s great to see everyone having being creative, having fun, and getting together on St. Patrick’s Day” said Caroline Brady parade organiser.
The Winner of the Peter Brady Perpetual Cup for BEST IN PARADE are the combined Lucan Scouts the 23rd Lucan Scouts and the 142nd Esker Scouts. They did a fantastic job as flag bearers presenting the Colour Party and they were one of the biggest groups in this year’s Lucan St Patricks Day Parade. The Winner of the Paddy Keeny memorial Trophy for BEST TURNED OUT in parade are Lucan Sarsfields Gaa Club. They’ve been in every parade since 1991 and are always the biggest group. Lucan Sarsfields Abú. The Winner of the BEST COMMERCIAL entry in the parade is RTH, Remi the Handyman. A great supporter of the parade for many years and a local business. We are delighted to see Remi’s business grow from strength to strength since we first saw him years ago in the Lucan Parade.
The Winner of the Muintir na Tíre YOUTH entry is Arthur Griffith Park FC. Their U12 and U13 teams are just back from Liverpool FC training academy. This is the second time they’ve been to Liverpool to play against Liverpool FC and visit the training academy. They demonstrated some pretty slick football moves for us. AGP FC Abú. The Winner of BEST PERFORMANCE was the Ab Fab, and our very own Lucan Gospel Choir. A huge surprise for the crowd as they arrived on the Big Bus and sang the whole way from Dodsboro into Lucan village entertaining the crowd all along the parade route. It was a spectacular performance.
The Winner of BEST INDIVIDUAL entry is Walter and Emma Kilcullen. Walter drove his vintage 1975 VW Beetle and is a member of the Celtic Old Vehicles Owners Club (COVOC) which is the largest vintage club in Ireland. Emma had a long time ambition to hold an art exhibition and with the help of St. John of Gods she held her first art exhibition in Maynooth Library in March 2023. Her work is a combination of photography and art. Emma loves recycling and loves to make a “creative explosion” by reusing items for her work. The exhibition was very successful and she sold all 12 pieces.
Winner of MOST ENERGETIC is Lucan BMX Club Ireland’s biggest, baddest, and best BMX track based in St. Catherine’s park. Their members enthralled the crowd with their BMX bike tricks all the way along the parade route, and gave us an outstanding demonstration of bike control at the review stand.
Winner of the MOST COLOURFUL entry was The Chinese Community. Lucan has a very vibrant Chinese Community and are regulars in the Lucan Parade. This year they put on a very colourful display dressed in traditional Chinese clothing and they gave us a demonstration of martial arts set to Chinese music.
Winner of the MOST ENTERTAINING entry was Jimmy Stagg Cycles and Lucan Cycling Club. Jimmy and Lucan Cycling Club have one of the longest standing partnerships in Cycling in Ireland with Staggs supporting the club since 1985. They also put Lucan on the map organising the Stagg Cycles Lucan Grand Prix every year which sees cyclists coming into Lucan from all over the world.
“This year’s parade was the biggest ever with over 40 entries and approx 2,500 marching in the parade” said Caroline Brady Parade Organiser. “This year as well as having an opportunity to perform at the review stand, the groups had an opportunity to perform at the Spar in Dodsboro, McDonalds under the N4, the AIB, and the Review stand in the village. There was a huge turnover to watch the parade all along the route, Dodsboro and Lucan village was packed to capacity, and the atmosphere was electric. We start planning the Parade in September, and we meet every week right up until the week of St. Patrick’s Day. When you see the happy beaming faces of the children both in the parade and in the crowd it makes the effort well worth it, it’s the only reason we do it really.”
The parade is a free family day out as well as the parade itself we had the Lucan Concert Band performing at Spar Dodsboro from 2pm, the St. James Brass & Reed performing at the Ball Alley from 2pm, and Free Face Painters, Clowns, Balloon Artists at Muintir na Tíre in village & Tesco Dodsboro from 2pm. They ran two competitions 1) a painting competition with the primary schools winners announced on our FaceBook page, and 2) a Create a Go Kart competition with the Transition Year Students in the Secondary Schools judging and winners will be announced in May at the Transition Year Graduation.
“I’d want to highlight the number of groups and individuals in the community who help us, and to say a big thank you to our volunteers, the SDCC Volunteer Core, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Lucan Red Cross, Lucan Men’s Shed, Lucan Tidy Towns, Lucan ICA, St. Joseph’s Transition Year Students, and the individual volunteers from the community who all turned up on the day to help us out, we couldn’t do it without you.” said Caroline Brady parade organiser.
The Lucan St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee is a volunteer led non-profit community organisation. The parade committee are: Organiser Caroline Brady P.C. Committee Members: Sanjeeb Barik, Joseph Brady, Richard Casley, Samantha Cummins, Denise Edwards, Aedan O’Duil, Bernice Farrelly, Emma Kirwan, Leighann Spollen, Marcin Witoski, SDCC Community Dept, and the Community Guards Lucan Station.
Thank you to Toner Transport who supply the Review Stand, Joe Keegan for DJ & PA System, and Print & Promotions for the Sound System. The Lucan St. Patrick’s Day Parade is grateful to South Dublin County Council who provide a grant for the parade, the SDCC Parks Department who help us with barriers and clean up after the parade, and to the Lucan Traders who sponsor the parade. Thank you to Lucan An Garda Síochána for their support and a big thank you to the Little Blue Heroes who are on duty today with their Garda buddies. The Parade is made possible by their continued support since 1991, over 30 years of supporting the community in Lucan.
