Happy St Patrick's weekend

The local celebrations of the St Patrick's Festival Weekend continue today with a special lilt, following yesterday's victory in the Six Nations, writes Brian Byrne.

And though a different football discipline, no doubt the Kilcullen GAA lads will raise a glass or two to BOD and the gang at their fundraiser Race Night in Joey's Hideout this evening. It's free entry, with a light buffet as part of the evening, and lots of good craic.

Save some of the time and money for tomorrow, though, when the Kilcullen Scouts set out to retain their title as best organisers in town with the second St Patrick's Day Parade. The Diary is unfortunately out of the country this weekend, so we won't be able to cover it directly. Still, there should be plenty of photos knocking around on the social networks, and I'm sure Conor Williams will cover it very well again.

And if you want to relax with a bit of fashion and help out our animal friends afterwards, the Kildare West Wicklow SPCA have a Fashion Show fundraiser in the Town House Hotel, Naas, from 3pm tomorrow.

Looking at the KCA Community Calendar, it looks kind of quiet for the rest of the week, so there's plenty of time to rest up for an early morning on Saturday next, 22 March. That's the Spring Equinox, and with sunrise at 6.57am, it's hopefully an opportunity again to see the stunning effect created by Noel Scullion with his 'spear' sculpture at the Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park. Weather permitting. As an incentive, Ray and Fiona Kelly will again be offering sausages and brown bread to those hardy souls who make it up to Nicholastown.



And just to remind you of the other things happening next weekend, the Maintain Hope Parachute Jump on Sunday 23 still has a couple of places for would-be dropouts. Failing that, you could still do the 5K Fun Run & Walk starting out at the Parish Centre the same afternoon, 2pm.

That's also the start of Guided Prayer Week — details from Parish Centre.

Meantime, if you want to see what the Diary is up to at the moment, click here. Normal service resumes Tuesday.