In the end, the teddy bears were breeding like rabbits. 

Every time we thought we had hit the final bear in this wonderful Teddy Bear Chain along Greystones’ seafront today, another one would waddle up to the finishing line.

Sometimes, there’d be five, six, seven teddy bears, all huddled in a bag, red-faced for being so late to the party.
With each new ‘final teddy’, the cheers would soar, the cameras would whir, and then… hey, here’s another teddy!

And wait, what’s this? A walking, talking, smiling, burping bear? Eh, close. It’s a baby, in a bear suit. Who gets to share in the limelight for a minute or so, as the final tag – Teddy Bear #5208 – is put into place. Yep, that’s right – 5,208 teddy bears had a picnic along Greystones shoreline today, Sunday May 17th 2015, and it was all in aid of two worthy charities, The Caroline Foundation and Bray Lakers.

It meant that Greystones now holds the record for the longest teddy bear chain in Ireland. Which is nice. More importantly, a lot of valuable funding for good work was raised on the day.

Oh, and who among you spotted the mighty Professor John Crown helping the Bray Gospel Choir get to those Hallelujah highs?

The South Beach side here was covered by Pablo Photography, whilst from the Beach Bear down to the harbour was covered by pixbyjohn. The latter’s lush colours plainly show up Pablo’s dull palette. This means war.

A great big bear hug to everyone who made it down or contributed to this perfect day. Heck, even the rain stayed away…

Now, go check out 2014’s longest ribbon challenge here.