Greystones’ Paddy’s Day 2022

Did someone order an Irish totem pole…? THURS17MAR22

aysus, Ruth and Liam were hopping mad about there being no Paddy’s Day parade in the town this year.

Hopping. Verging on frothing.

They stopped us just as we emerged from the Paddywhackery party down at Carraig Eden, and given how packed the place was, we couldn’t help feeling that Ruth and Liam might be in the minority today.

From Ukraine with gloves

With Irish dancing, singing, kids chalking up the car park into an art gallery, free green popcorn and the sun shining bright, to quote the great Saint Patrick himself, the joint was fairly rockin’.

“We’ve been involved in the parades before,” said Ruth, “and suddenly, Greystones is the only town in Wicklow without one. Shocking. And they haven’t finished painting the lines on Church Road either…”

Do people really miss that slow-moving conveyer belt for the town’s businesses and clubs though? Has our Paddy’s Day parade ever been all that much more than a walking, squawking, seemingly endless billboard?

Sure, it’s great to see the young kids fly the flag for their various clubs, and who doesn’t like a blast of a brass band trumpeting up through the town, but there’s an argument to be made that a smaller parade matched with an annual outdoor party such as Carraig Eden’s sweet alfresco céili carousing might just be the way forward for Greystones’ annual Paddy’s Day celebrations.

In the meantime, the craic was all the way up to 99 today, as Gavin and the Rise At The Cove crew along with the Greystones Town Team delivered pretty much the perfect Paddy’s Day.

From the scouts selling homemade cakes, the young Irish dancers a-prancin’ and the musicians warbling about oul’ Éireann to the mighty Maui bringing some Eurovision glitz, the Ducks fresh out of the Cove, the Holyheaders fresh off the boat and the happy faces of the town’s first of many Ukrainian visitors coming to stay, sure it was enough to melt even grumpy ol’ GG’s heart.

You can check out the full gallery of pics from the day right here, and go jump back through previous hootenanies right over here.

Again, you can check out the full gallery of pics from the day right here, and go jump back through previous hootenanies right over here.