Come on out and rep your Irish roots at the 48th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Ocean View, Norfolk! http://
The IAS will be located in Section One, Position 29. This will be in the general vicinity of Northside Middle School at the corner of Granby St. & Westmont Ave. Parade Marshalls in green jackets will be there to assist you if you have questions. IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to get near Northside Middle School by car after 9 am, so if you want to park near the school plan to get there early.
There will also be running a shuttle bus from 7 am – 9:40 am between Ocean View Elementary School (Government & Mason Creek Road) at the end of the parade route back to the parade start area, so you can park at the end of the parade if you wish. THERE IS NO SHUTTLE BACK AFTER THE PARADE, SO PLEASE PLAN ACCORDINGLY.
Our IRISH COTTAGE and PADDY WAGON floats should arrive in the line up between 8:30 and 8:45 am Saturday morning. PLEASE JOIN US THEN WITH WHATEVER YOU’VE GOT TO HELP DECORATE THEM: Irish banners, bunting, flags, streamers, shamrocks, leprechauns, beads, etc. Parade step off is 10 am sharp.
PLEASE sign up with Jim Hagerty to carry one of our 32 Irish country flags in the parade this year. They looked SPECTACULAR the last two years, and we want that to be the case again this year! LET’S GET ALL 32 IRISH COUNTY FLAGS FLYING!!!
Current 2015 IAS members with mobility issues and/or small children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews are welcome to ride on the IAS floats. We request that people capable of walking the entire parade route (about 1.5 miles) do so in order to save room on the floats for people who can’t walk themselves or who have little kids who can’t walk that far. MAKE SURE YOUR 2015 IAS DUES ARE PAID SO YOU CAN RIDE – we’ll even take them the morning of! There ARE benefits to IAS membership, doncha know?! 🙂
• Along with our two awesome floats, we will have our 2015 IAS PRINCESSES, riding on a green Mustang convertible.
• We will also have our IAS PADDY PACK of Irish-owned and Irish breed dogs marching with us. Members are encouraged to join the Paddy Pack with their dogs as long as the dogs are people-friendly and dog-friendly, are up-to-date on their vaccinations, and are on a non-retractable leash. We need 2 volunteers to carry our gorgeous IAS Paddy Pack banner, designed by Jason Wilson!
• IRISH STEP DANCERS from An Cor Rud/The Reel Thing will “step lively” along the parade route, with their parents carrying their banner!
• For the 4th year running, we are delighted to be joined by a contingent of our friends from the HAMPTON ROADS HURLING CLUB! Hurling is one of Ireland’s national sports and has its roots in ancient times. We’re excited to have the lads along on the one road sharing the one load with us!
* This year, we are excited to have the Cumann na mBan CAMOGIE TEAM making their parade debut! Our lady hurlers will add some extra pizazz to our Irish contingent!
A few rules from the parade organizers:
1. We are not allowed to throw items at/to spectators.
2. We are not allowed to have alcoholic beverages in the parade.
Violating these rules will get you/us ejected from the parade.
https://www.facebook.com/events/574280569376029
