The plan was to mark the 200th anniversary of the first lifeboat station established in Ireland by honouring its members as the grand marshals of the St Patrick’s Day parade in Arklow, Co Wicklow. That was until mid-January, when out of frustration and burnout the long-time committee all resigned.
With €1,000 in the bank and an insurance cost to cover the parade coming in at €6,500, the committee of long-time and dedicated volunteers had had enough.
“Last year it was €4,000 for just two hours’ insurance coverage and now this year it has increased to €6,500,” outgoing chairman Dean Dickenson tells The Irish Times.
“A decade ago we used to get insured for about €800; the increased costs are extortionate. This is for 15 to 20 marching bands and about 20 floats and an array of businesses’ vehicles. To be fair, we get a grant of €1,500 from the council, but we have to pay it back then for the road closures.”
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They did not want to resign, he says, so the move was bittersweet.
“But all we had in our account was €1,000, and we didn’t know where we would get another €5,000.”
Dickenson adds that local shops and businesses are under sustained financial pressure with rising costs.
[ St Patrick’s Day celebrations highlight the exodus from rural IrelandOpens in new window ]
“In the past local shops and companies were very supportive, helping to fund the parade, but the next generation of owners aren’t as interested. As well as that, it has been a challenge to get the community involved and in finding stewards.”
Despairingly, he explains that “nobody shows up to the agm every year, and then there are people complaining about the parade”.
The dramatic decision to resign was made known to the Arklow Municipal District Council at its January meeting.
Speaking at the time, Independent councillor Peir Leonard argued that the resignations offered “a new opportunity for the town to step up to the plate”.
“Coming together as a community is so important – we need to maximise resources within the council to get a plan in place. A good co-ordinator is needed who could take the stress out of organising it. It’s not rocket science; we need to utilise groups in the area to make sure it happens.”
Speaking to The Irish Times this week, Leonard says it was not the fault of the outgoing committee.
‘Last year was transitional after the committee wanted to stand down, which is understandable, as people get tired. We were fortunate ultimately, however, that two of them stayed on and allowed continuity’
— Mark Hogan, Wicklow town St Patrick's Day committee
“We need to see the parade as a hybrid effort, with community coming on board, but the council doing the heavy lifting. The outgoing committee have been incredible and have also been running the Sea Breeze festival too, with the same problems arising for any such events.”
Leonard says the town had “suffered a lot because of planning delays in the delivery of its wastewater treatment plant”, which was officially opened last year.
“While there is a lot of dereliction, we’ve had a lot of new people move here since Covid since house prices in Dublin have become prohibitive. On a positive note, there is a new arts centre too and a sensory space was opened in the library last year as part of the St Patrick’s day celebrations,” she said.
She welcomes the fact that a commitment was made at an Arklow Town Teams meeting on Wednesday to create a subgroup to run the parade this year.
Established by the government in 2022 under the Town Centre First policy, Town Teams has been established as a collaborative group of local residents, community groups, businesses, other stakeholders and the local authority to develop a tailored plan based on the challenges and strengths of individual towns.
“After teasing out some of the financial issues, it was agreed the new committee would be a subgroup of our Town Teams. Whilst we have a lot of volunteers offering to help, we really need people with backgrounds in crowd management and health and safety oversight,” Leonard says.
Coincidentally, up the coast in Wicklow town, the resources of the Town Teams helped to bring its parade back from a precipice in 2025. The entire committee also stood down there just six weeks before the scheduled parade.
Once again, the challenges were insurance costs and general financing, as well as finding volunteers.
However, the crisis was short-lived and, according to Mark Hogan, the Wicklow town committee’s new secretary, all is very positive as preparations are made for this year’s parade, with a theme of Inclusion and with RTÉ’s Eileen Whelan once again acting as the master of ceremonies.
“Last year was transitional after the committee wanted to stand down, which is understandable, as people get tired. We were fortunate ultimately, however, that two of them stayed on and allowed continuity with two new members including myself. We ran a very successful parade supported by the council, the chamber of commerce and the guards,” he says.
“We were also very fortunate that we got two major sponsors: the Ray of Sunshine childcare facility and a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Even if the economic climate has put pressure on local businesses, they were very supportive too.”
He stresses the positives of such events as showcasing small towns, gathering the various communities together and creating business. “With so much population growth in some Irish towns, there is a very positive multicultural dimension to the parades.
“The majority of our stewards last year were men from the IPAS [International Protection Accommodation Service] centre in the Grand Hotel and they were excellent,” Hogan says.
He argues that there “is no easy solution to the challenges for volunteers running festivals”, particularly since there are more of them running each year.
“It is about event management at the end of the day, and towns like ours do not have the financial strength of the cities where there are budgets to pay people to organise St Patrick’s Day parades,” Hogan observes.
