1916 Easter rising

Visiting Saltee Island was a pleasure, but it is the time to return and check out what we have missed while we were away. There are some street scenes and the events that took place in Clonmel and Waterford.

Clonmel Junction festival is the most eventful week in July, filled with live music, street performance, theatre and visual art. Installations of the works A Child for sale by a world renowned artist and Kilsheelan resident Gottfried Helnwein could be seen in various places in the streets of Clonmel.

In my blog post Cry for the Last Child, I wrote about Gottfried and his beautiful castle. His granddaughters Croí and Éala are regular models for his paintings.

Lords of Strut – very talented and very positive comedians from Cork gave a brilliant performance in Clonmel.

‘Over styled and under dressed’, silly but charming characters Strut brothers Sean and Seamus, won the hearts of young and old with their hilarious show, acrobatics, satire and dance.

The streets of Waterford were not always as deserted as you might think after looking at this picture.

Historical reenactment of 1916 Easter Rising gathered quite a crowd and took us a hundred years back.

There is a video of the Reenactment I found on Youtube – I even caught a glimpse of myself in it 🙂

All sorts of transportation in The Quay, side by side. I love this street, and I think that most of my Waterford pictures were taken there.

Irish United Nations Veteran meeting was held in Cathedral Square, just a minute walk from The Quay. Thank you for your service!

Waterford Spraoi festival is one of a kind. Theatre, music, art, dance and much more is happening in the streets of Waterford on the first weekend of August. Here is my Spraoi 2015 post. I will share only a few pictures this time.

Spraoi orchestra string quartet.

Morbid&Sons, a brand new undertaker business. Way to go, guys!

Tango for all! Dance until dark!

The sun is setting down and it looks like we are having a rainy day tomorrow 🙂

Melting gold of the setting sun flows behind the horizon. Darkness comes instead.

It is a perfect time to see the famous Spraoi monsters in the streets of Waterford City…

… and listen to the monster style music 🙂

Don’t be afraid of Spraoi monsters. They are a little bit crazy, but all they want is to have fun. The only really scary and ugly thing in this world is hate.

Thank you for stopping by and for your interest in Ireland. In my next blog post, we will return to the Ocean and take a very unusual walk 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend!

This picture is my personal favorite. I took it in a small town a couple of years ago. Proud mother and her beautiful baby daughter, surrounded with their family, are standing in the crowd of spectators during the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the first such Parade for the baby.

St. Patrick’s Day parade features everything Irish. It is a wonderful spectacle of marching bands and dancers, schools and community groups, and various floats, that include local businesses, artists, firefighters and many others.

This year, almost 60 parades and many more cultural events and festivals took place throughout the country. The main National Parade in Dublin city attracted more than 500,000 spectators

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, some of the parades include the re-enactments of the events.

Waterford City was the first city to declare St Patrick’s Day a national holiday, and to entirely suspend business on the day. Before 1903 St Patrick’s Day was not a national holiday in Ireland.

The theme of this year’s parade in Waterford city was ‘Three Sisters 2020: Celebrating Waterford’s Cultural Diversity’. The Three Sister’s bid sees Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford in a joint initiative to become European Capital of Culture 2020. The annual parade was accompanied by various street performances and other cultural activities throughout the day.

The county’s cultural diversity was presented with a number of international entries. For the first time, members of the Ukrainian community took part.

Members of the Filipino community, who won Best Community Float last year, returned with a new colourful creation.

Three African communities participated in the parade this year.

My favorites are the local theatrical groups, because the characters are interacting with the spectators during the march, and it is always fun.

Marching to his own beat 🙂

Evolution themed SPRAOI float is leaving the parade, and the spectators are leaving too, but the celebration is not over.

In addition to the parade, a series of events are staged in the city centre, featuring entertainment from local bands, amusement rides and a treasure hunt.

This year, about 60 different communities were presented in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Waterford City. Thank you for taking part!