Clare County Council has confirmed that the annual Ennis St Patrick’s Day parade has been cancelled.
In a statement this afternoon, the local authority said: “A risk assessment, based on Health Service Executive guidelines, was carried out by Clare County Council which concluded that based on the demographic of those attending the parade, the close proximity of people attending the event and the duration of the event (among other considerations), Clare County Council is not in a position to provide the necessary assurances in relation to current HSE Guidelines.
Clare County Council would like to thank the committee members and all the parade entries who had started work on this year’s parade in January and appreciate that a lot of effort and time has gone into getting ready for the parade in Ennis – however – the health and well-being of our community is our first priority and having reviewed the guidelines from the HSE and the uncertainty surrounding COVID -19, Ennis Municipal District feel it is appropriate to cancel this year’s event,” the council added.
Pat Dowling CE of Clare County Council said in light of this news and following the decision by Dublin, Cork and other Counties to cancel the event. Furthermore the Members of Clare County Council at this   meeting have unanimously supported this decision he stated that Clare County Council as shown strong leadership in this matter.
For any further Queries regarding the Guidelines for COVID-19 please visit https://www.hse.ie
The Ennis parade is being cancelled. There are no councillors opposing this move among those who have spoken so far.
— GavinGrace (@GavinGrace) March 9, 2020