Clare County Council has confirmed that Ennis native Mick O’Dea, one of Ireland’s leading contemporary artists, will serve as Grand Marshal for this year’s Ennis St Patrick’s Day parade.
Born in the county capital in 1958, O’Dea attended CBS Primary School and St Flannan’s College before studying at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and the Winchester School of Art in Barcelona.
The award‑winning painter and sculptor has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad, with work shown at the National Gallery of Ireland, the Royal Hibernian Academy, Leinster House, Belfast City Hall and the Cēsis History and Art Museum in Latvia. His pieces also feature in private collections across Europe, the United States and Asia.
Mr. O’Dea will lead the parade from Áras Contae an Chláir at 11am on Tuesday, March 17. The route will take participants along New Road, Newbridge Road, Club Bridge, Abbey Street carpark, Bank Place and Bindon Street.
Festivities begin at 10.15am with Shannon Gospel Choir performing in Abbey Street carpark and Comhaltas at Steele’s Terrace. Clare FM presenter Colum McGrath will return as parade MC.
This year’s parade theme is ‘Ennis – Wicked for Good!’ and prizes will be awarded for the most creative float, the best interpretation of the theme and the most entertaining entrant.
Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Mary Howard, said, “We could not think of a more suitable and deserving Grand Marshal than Mick O’Dea and it is a pleasure to have him lead our St Patrick’s Day parade.”
She added, “Mick has spent his life championing Irish art and culture, and he has never forgotten his roots in Ennis. He has often spoken about the influence of his early years in the family’s pub‑grocery shop on O’Connell Street, where encounters with customers in the 1960s and early 1970s helped shape his interest in people and portraiture.”
“Mick reflects the talent and cultural heritage that define this town and I know people will be delighted to see him at the head of the procession.”
Mayor Howard said the parade is a chance for communities across Ennis to come together and celebrate what makes the town a vibrant place.
She continued, “We have a wide and diverse mix of groups who bring their own colour and energy every year. This year’s theme, ‘Ennis – Wicked for Good!’, invites people of all ages to have fun with costumes and creativity.”
Find out more about this year’s parade here….
Born in Ennis in 1958, Mick O’Dea is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Winchester School of Art. He lectured at NCAD for sixteen years and has exhibited widely in Ireland, Europe, the United States and Tanzania.
His awards include the Ireland US Council and Irish Arts Review Portraiture Award and the Royal Ulster Academy Portrait Prize. He became a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1996 and later served as its President. He was elected to Aosdána in 1996 and appointed the first Principal of the RHA School in 2006. In 2015 he was made a Fellow of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland for his work in reviving anatomy teaching for artists.
In 2024 he was elected Vice President of the Trinity College Historical Society. Dublin City University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in 2025. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy and has served on the Board of Governors of the National Gallery of Ireland, chairing its Acquisitions and Exhibition Committee. He also chaired An Post’s Stamp Design Advisory Committee for almost a decade.
O’Dea continues to work as a full‑time artist in Dublin, Mayo and abroad.