Saint Patrick drives a snake up Belfast's Donegall Square

Regular readers may recall I was optimistic when I heard, way back when, that Belfast city council would help fund this year's St Patrick's day parade in an effort to reduce the traditional sectarian nature of the event. The hope was that the day could be steered in such a direction that people could still enjoy celebrating Saint Patrick's day, but that the celebrations wouldn't be restricted to tricolour waving republicans. Indeed there had been talk of bans on offensive emblems and anyone wearing 'offensive' football tops (you know the ones I mean) being given a green T-shirt to cover it.

I've been curiously optimistic about the potential for such celebrations since the ideas were first mooted, so decided to pop along to see how the parade went - even doing my bit for Saint Patrick and wearing a green t-shirt (the only one I own which isn't a Northern Ireland shirt).

Follow up:

Today's council-funded celebrations were to incorporate a parade along Donegall Place and High Street, followed by a concert at Customs House Square. I was only able to make it to the parade along the streets though, so can't comment on what went down at the concert.

There was a lot of talk, and many spectators seemed to heed the pleas to 'be sensible', but there seemed to be an obvious minority determined to stick it to the Prods. Of course rather than waving tricolours themselves, many preferred to cynically hand them to their toddlers, knowing that the event sec staff, who proved as usless at this parade as they do at each and every Northern Ireland match, wouldn't try to deprive a child of his newest novelty.

The council themselves, for what its worth, looked to be making an effort. I was pleased to note that one of the first things I saw when I got into the city centre was a Saint Patrick's flag flying from City Hall. Unfortunately I couldn't help but notice the swarm of tricolours first, something also noted by UTV's report. I must ask the BBC for tips, since they managed not to notice.

"Fuck the Huns, eh Seamy?"

To be fair, there did seem to be a reduced number of Celtic shirts compared to the news footage from last year's event, and fewer flags. However I saw at least one guy openly selling green, white and orange hats, whistles and other paraphenalia and more than a few teenage spides/millies drinking cans of beer in the street, clad in their best tracksuits and celtic tops (wrapped in tricolour skirts/capes of course).

Many spectators waved Irish tricolours unhindered

UTV's report also noted that "no action was taken against dozens of revellers who waved small Irish flags, which were on sale from a makeshift stall on Donegall Place for £2." While I'm disappointed with the lack of action over the flags, surely there's no excuse for allowing them to be sold (presumably by an unlicensed trader) right in the middle of the action.

To be perfectly honest, I was a little underwhelmed by the parade itself; perhaps the weather had me in less than the best mood or maybe it was the colourful display of republicanism. It just didn't seem like it was worth a 20 minute or so wait on a miserable March day. The parade itself amounted to about 10 minutes of people walking past twirling colourful flags, vikings walking on stilts, a giant rainbow banner carried by members of the Lesbian Advocacy Services Initiative (LASI) and a couple of giant puppet-like creatures created by local youth clubs. It was pretty impressive, brief though it was, particularly the giant models of Saint Patrick. However I think it would need to have more people involved (and less green white and orange) to make me go back and brave the cold again next year.

That said it did show a little promise and seemed, as I said before, an improvement on last year's disgusting display. Whether or not the council made the right decision to fund it is hard to say. If it was up to me, I'd be going back to the organisers asking them to have a better crack at de-republicanising it for next year. If they can't manage that then I suggest the council should rethink whether or not they continue to fund the event in subsequent years.

Same again next year lads?