BY NUALA MCALOON
It now looks unlikely that there will be a At Patrick's Day parade in Enniskillen due to lack of interest.
Fermanagh Council, which will fund and assist the organisers, is still on the lookout for groups to come forward and take over the mantle of organising a St Patrick's Day parade.
Meanwhile for the first time in 68 years, the Shamrock is set to meet the Palm, well almost! That's due to the fact that this year the Feast of St. Patrick's Day coincides with Holy Week.
Traditionally, St. Patrick's Day as we know it falls on the 17th March. However, it has been occasionally moved by church authorities due to its falling in Holy Week as is the case now in 2008.
So, to the confusion.
The 17th March will fall this year on a Monday, the second day of Holy Week. The feast of St. Patrick's Day, therefore will be celebrated two days earlier on Saturday, 15th March. It will be followed the next day by Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, the 16th March.
This last happened in 1940, when St. Patrick's Day was observed on 3rd April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday.
The matter has caused some degree of confusion, not least among the post-1940 traditionalists who are finding it difficult to comprehend how such a huge day in the calendar can be changed.
Meanwhile, the streets of Enniskillen are likely to be quiet once again this St. Patrick's Day despite a range of public complaints last March that no parade had been organised for the town.
As yet, there are no formal plans to celebrate the feast in Enniskillen because, according to Fermanagh District Council, there has been a lack of public interest in the subject.
Robert Gibson, Director of Leisure, Tourism and Arts said the Council had put its efforts to review the situation to use last September when it held a public meeting in the Lakeland Forum to engage public interest in running a St. Patrick's Day parade.
However, he reported that despite the meeting being highlighted in the local media, no members of the public turned up and only two Councillors were present.
"The Council has now written to community groups in the area to engage their interest for a St. Patrick's Day Parade but, so far there has been little response," Mr Gibson said this week. "One group did respond and said it was prepared to have a float in a parade but was not prepared to run it."
However, the letters Mr Gibson sent out were only issued last week and, so he is giving the groups another few weeks to respond. That failing, he stated, the Council would not be organising a parade.
"It is up to the community to see if they are interested in running a parade, but the Council will not be running one. The Council will assist, but it will not be organising it."
Mr Gibson said if like last year, there was no parade in the town, the Council would once again provide musical entertainment on the streets.
Up until last year, an annual celebration that had run for four consecutive years had been successfully organised. It was organised by Project St. Patrick and supported by among others, the Council. It pulled out last year due to the difficulties it had keeping up the momentum due to the lack of input from businesses and traders.
This year, however, it seems that if the community of Enniskillen don't come together, there will be no colourful floats, marching bands, no jugglers, no fire breathers, or no St. Patrick characters to banish any showy life-sized snakes.
The bleak scenario will be heightened by the fact that those who look forward to watching the annual St. Michael's Scout Band head the parade will also have to go without as the band are heading west, to New York to participate in the St Patrick's Day celebrations there.
