It's St Patrick's Day and the sun came out here in Ireland!
It was cool and got up to about 12 degrees Celsius so I wore layers for what I got up to today. And what did I do?! Well I cycled in the Dublin parade!
The parade is back for the first time since 2019 after it was cancelled in 2020 - as we were just starting lockdown this time two years ago. Along with the parade being back, the Dublin Cycling Campaign are also back with a themed cycle which was the closing float (is a group of 100 cyclists, in costume, a float?) of the parade.
You can look back on past blogs here to see what I wore at previous parades.
The theme for our cycle float wass "Joyce Cycle" to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of James Joyce's Ulysses and we all wore Bloomsday / Joycean outfits.
Ably led by Dublin City Councillor Donna Cooney, who coordinated the cyclists participations in the parade, we cycled, cheered and waved and had a lot of fun.
A clap from the President of Ireland
The stand out moment for me was when we passed the Grand Stand with all of the dignitaries, our President Michael D. Higgins stood and clapped for us as we passed. What an honour!
Here's a few pics of my costume and some of the parade.
And now that the parade is over, I will unpick the ribbons off my hat and will donate it to a charity shop along with doing a big clear out of my attic tomorrow (I have lots of things up there that I haven't used since my return from Spain, so they probably can be donated).
My dress was a casualty of the cycle having got caught in my chain a few times. It's now got a hole in it. It's a dress that I wore to a black tie wedding over 15 years ago, but all I've been using it for is for dressing up in costume for the last few years, so it is no loss (also having looked at the tear, I think I can probably stitch it up and repair it so it is fine for wearing again as a costume). I had worn it in previous parades (see when I dressed up as a suffragette) but the bike that I was cycling on that day had a chain guard which my Brompton doesn't. Seems like a chain guard is probably an essential piece of kit on your bike if you are going to be cycling in long skirts!
A note about Ukraine
As you can see we wore blue bands on our hats along with a yellow sunflower in support of Ukraine. This is something that I was very happy to do. As you can see I haven't written a blog in a few weeks and quite honestly it was because I couldn't bring myself to. I wanted to write about the atrocities that are being done on Ukraine but I am finding it hard to verbalise how devastated I feel for the Ukrainian people. I am so incredibly sad for them.
As their country was attacked, Ireland immediately began to welcome in refugees and it has been inspiring to see Irish people open up their homes to those in need. There is a huge fundraising effort and as usual us Irish dig deep and donate as much as we can.
As a country that gets celebrated the world over on our special day it is tough to see Ukraine being foremost in the world's mind - but not for something positive but instead the world is looking on in horror.
At this point in time I do not hold out much hope for Ukraine, but one thing I do have hope for, and that is, the strength in humankind. The Ukraine people will survive with the help of the world. We are one big globalised community and we must look out for each other.
Good will prevail over evil.
And on that sombre note I end by wishing you a Happy St Patrick's Day where ever you are in the world.
