Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads laid siege to Kilkenny in the 17th century. Last year locals thought they were under siege again when the Government threatened to take away their city status.
Now the city is to be placed under siege once more - this time by dragons, spiders and poison-ivy drummers. No, it's not the Government but the participants in a dramatic street parade being organised as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival.
The organisers claim the parade, on Sunday week, will be the most colourful and spectacular event ever seen on the streets of Kilkenny. That's promising a lot, but then the festival has made a habit in recent years of setting ambitious targets for itself, and exceeding them.
Attendance figures at the festival jumped from 20,000 in 1998 to 72,000 last year, largely because of the introduction of colourful, open-air events such as parades, pageants and street theatre.
The festival is more popular and accessible than ever since it was founded in 1973, but its manager, Ms Maureen Kennelly, stresses that the quality of its core events has been maintained. A festival which includes writers of the calibre of Michael Ondaatje, Graham Swift, Blake Morrison and Alistair McLeod, French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, fiddle virtuoso Martin Hayes and artists of the calibre of Tony O'Malley and Louis Le Brocquy, to name but a few, is certainly not lacking in quality.
Among the most eagerly anticipated events is the Irish premiere of Steven Berkoff's play Kvetch, directed by Conall Morrison. The play is being produced by the festival itself and it may tour with it later.
The biggest talking point, however, is likely to be the provocative work of Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, whose enormous photo-realist paintings have already created a stir even before they're seen hanging from buildings throughout the city.
Helnwein, who lives for part of each year in Kilsheelan, near Clonmel, says one of the things that appealed to him about doing the exhibition in Kilkenny is that it has few advertisement billboards compared to other cities. People are not accustomed to seeing large images in the city so the visual impact of his work will be heightened, he believes.
As well as street and outdoor events in the main festival, there is also a children's programme of theatre, film and literary events and workshops in puppet-making, paper-making, instrument-making and Latin and African drumming.
The festival opens on Friday and runs until August 19th. Booking information can be obtained from 056-52175 or from the festival website: www.kilkenny.ie
For more information on travel and festivals around Ireland, see Explore Ireland at www.ireland.com/explore/