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Council To Fund St Patrick's Day Carnival in 2006
At it's July monthly meeting, Belfast City Council agreed to provide £70,000 funding for next year's St Patrick's day carnival in Belfast. The move follows complaints in February when the council voted not to overturn a decision refusing to grant funding to the carnival this year, basically due to the fact it was going to be a blatant republican rally.
DUP councillor Nelson McCausland has said that the council will be hoping that with its involvement, next year's carnival will be "an event free from that plethora of tricolours we saw outside the City Hall this year." Somehow I get the feeling that might be a touch optimistic and the council don't seem to be positive either. They've agreed to run the event in Custom House Square as a pilot that will be independently evaluated. This will help the council to judge whether future funding is appropriate.
In that spirit, I found some interesting history on the Cross of Saint Patrick (pictured above). If organisers really want an 'inclusive' event, perhaps replacing the sea of tricolours outside the city hall with St Patrick's crosses would be a good place to start?