A great Parade made a great Day

Well, what can we say? A fabulous event. Great floats, great turnout to participate and to watch. Lots of colour, sound, music, movement. Laughter and smiles galore.

And all down to one fifth year CPC student and Venture Scout, Emma Birchall, pictured above with Kieran Forde of KCA and Mischa Fekete of The Bridge Camphill, which won the Best Float Award. Her idea, her planning with her fellow scouts, and her determination to make it work.

"Should have had one years ago," someone said. Yes, we should. But nobody said 'let's do it'. Until Emma did at an early meeting on how Kilcullen might do stuff for The Gathering. And in the true tradition of those sticking their head above the parapet having to do things themselves, she did it.

She tries to keep in the background. But she's not allowed do that today. Well done, Emma. You played a blinder. Now, we're stuck with having to follow it up next year. And there's a challenge ...

We have lots of pics to give a flavour of a great day out. The usual slideshow, from setting up until the end, and here's a direct link for those who want to scroll through them on their iPhone.

Watch out particularly for  'Bridgie' Aspell, our 103-years-old Supergran, who was the Grand Marshall for the first of what will definitely become an annual event. Also Danú the wolfhound, who brought owner Sabina Reddy out for the day. And floats representing groups and businesses from Kilcullen and further afield.

At one point during the staging before takeoff, we all thought that everybody in Kilcullen was actually in the parade, and there wouldn't be anyone to watch downtown. But there was no need to worry, there were crowds at the reviewing stand outside Bank of Ireland, and all the way up to the traffic lights, where things finished up with a number of music and dancing acts in the CPC grounds. They included the Wolfe Tone Brass & Reed Band from Ballymore, who were terrific. As were our own home-grown groups who followed on until mid-afternoon.