Buncrana and Moville St Patrick’s Day parades cancelled amid coronavirus concerns

The Inishowen events join others across the south that will not go ahead in a bid to curb the spread of the disease and in the interest of community health and safety.

It was announced earlier today that the Dublin and Cork parades were to be cancelled and the organisers behind the Buncrana and Moville events made their decision this (Monday) afternoon. The Letterkenny parade has also been cancelled.

Moville was to celebrate its 30th year of the parade next week and while that event won’t go ahead, the 30th anniversary appreciation night in Annie’s Bar on Saturday, March 14 is to go ahead at the moment.

Eamon McLaughlin, chairman of the organising committee said that while a lot of organisation had already taken place, they were aware a cancellation could be inevitable. He thanked everyone for the support received to date and said he hoped that, if coronavirus does spread locally, ‘everyone will get through it as best as possible.’

Councillor Nicholas Crossan, chairperson of the Buncrana St Patrick’s Day parade committee, said they made the call ‘in the interest of health and safety.’ He added how they also wanted to make the decision as soon as they could in order to give people time.

He said: “At the minute, parades are still going ahead in the north, so we wanted to give the bands a chance to maybe take part in those instead. People would also be getting their floats ready. We will all be back bigger and better than ever next year.”

Meanwhile, as things stand, the parades in Derry and Strabane are still going ahead as planned.