Olympic medallist Rob Heffernan will set the pace at Cork’s St Patrick’s Day parade
Former World Champion and Olympic medal-winning race walker, Rob Heffernan, will have to keep a slower pace than usual when he serves as Grand Marshal at the city St Patrick’s day parade which gets under way at 1pm on Sunday.
In November 2016 the Cork man became the first Irish athlete to receive an Olympic medal on home soil after he was belatedly awarded a bronze medal.
His achievement dates back to the London Olympics in 2012 where he came fourth. The Russian gold medallist was subsequently disqualified for doping.
Rob, who hails from Togher, says he is excited to lead the parade on our national holiday.
“I am very proud to be from Ireland, but even prouder to be from Cork,” Mr Heffernan said.
“Throughout my career, I have always promoted how wonderful Cork is and I am honoured to be the Grand Marshal of the Cork St Patrick’s day parade this year.”
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Mick Finn, says Rob is a great role model.
“We are immensely proud to be the hometown of Ireland’s only five-time Olympian. His three golds at World Championship level, his European successes, and his multiple national records for race-walking bring such pride to the city he so obviously loves. On the day when Ireland is celebrated the world over, it is fitting that Cork celebrates one of our most internationally successful citizens.”
Deirdre jokes that she is putting on a brave face having to share the lovely car with “that other eejit” (Byrne) while Byrne says he is “amazed” at how incredibly good the parade is these days.
“I’ll miss the floats of my era (a truck carrying freezing Americans followed by a fire brigade and a dog), I can’t wait to see this year’s mega floats.”
Meanwhile, the parade will celebrate colour, culture and community. The parade will be led by grand marshals, Des and Mona Manahan. The elderly couple came to public prominence when it emerged that Des was doing his wife’s makeup as her sight was failing.
Des decided to take makeup lessons to assist his beloved wife of 56 years.
It all started when Mona was getting a beauty tutorial from Rosie O’Driscoll, a makeup artist at a benefit cosmetics counter at Debenhams. Des, 83, was watching the lesson and teasing the beautician about how he could do a better job on his wife’s makeup.
“I started messing with her and I said, ‘look, you’ve got it crooked there, you did this wrong,’ joking her.
“And then she just handed me the brushes and said, ‘well, you do it’. So I started to do a little bit with it.”
The parade will leave the Glen at 1pm, continue down the Quay and onto the Mall.
The route will take the parade into the heart of the Viking Triangle, past Reginald’s Tower and 33 the Mall where the Irish Tricolour was flown for the first time in 1848.
St Patrick’s Festival celebrations will burst into life at midday on Sunday. The parade is being co-ordinated by Grooveyard Productions on behalf of Limerick City and County Council. The concept this year is One Giant Leap.
This year marks the 117th anniversary of the parade. The iconic fountain in Eyre Square will turn green for the celebrations and the parade will start at 11.30am and finish at approximately 1pm on Sunday.
The theme of this year’s parade is diversity and it will feature an array of community, cultural, sporting, and international groups including the country’s foremost spectacle theatre company, Macnas, led by the Macnas Young Ensemble.
The parade in Co Clare starts at 11am on Sunday from Clare County Council’s headquarters at Áras Contae an Chláir. More than 10,000 people lined the streets in last year’s parade, which featured 40 groups representing the many aspects of life in the area, and organisers are hopeful of topping that figure.
