The organisers of this year’s St Patrick’s Day events in Dundalk have taken the decision to postpone the festival due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
In a statement to the Democrat, Cllr. Conor Keelan said the decision was made in the “interest of public health”.
The statement said: “Following careful consideration this morning the Dundalk St. Patrick’s Day Committee have decided to postpone the events scheduled to take place in the town centre on March 16 and 17. We appreciate that this decision will disappoint many people but in the interest of public health and to ensure that the spread of Covid-19 is minimised we believe that this is the sensible approach to take at present.
“We are announcing this decision this morning in order to give the maximum amount of notice to all those who are involved, including all those who have signed up for the parade and the other events.
“I want to thank everyone who has supported us in the last few months; our main sponsors PayPal, and others in the local business community, Louth County Council, Dundalk Tidy Towns and Dundalk Gardaí, in order to bring something new and special to Dundalk for St Patrick’s Day, but this is now not possible at present.
“It is important to note that these events are not cancelled, they are postponed. We are already looking at scheduling for later in the year when it is deemed safe and that the spread of Covid-19 has ceased. We will continue to work with all our sponsors, suppliers and participants in arranging an alternative date.”