On Tuesday, March 26th at 7 pm the St. Patrick’s Day Bray Parade prize giving ceremony took place at the Town Hall.
- Over 50 groups with over 2,000 participants took part in the St. Patrick’s Day Bray Parade.
- It was the largest parade ever.
- Thousands of spectators came out to watch.
- Very difficult choices for the judges to select winners for this year.
- 6 awards for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade to present tonight.
Thank you!
We would like to extend a huge thank you to the many volunteers, service providers, sponsors, local businesses, families, artists, community groups and clubs who helped to make this year’s festival and parade happen. We could not have done it without you.
Best sports: Bray Emmets
Definitely the biggest entry in the parade this year was Bray Emmets who must have brought half the club with them including an enormous Football!!
Bray Emmets GAA Club is one of the largest sporting clubs in the county it currently has a membership of 1200 people and growing. They cater for boys and girls from the age of 4 all the way to adult level. Bray Emmets compete in Hurling, Camogie and football in both Wicklow and Dublin leagues.
Best spirit of St. Patrick’s Day: The Shauna McGauran School of Irish Dance
The Shauna McGauran School of Irish Dance was set up in September 2017 and now has nearly 50 registered dancers. It holds weekly classes in Bray for boys and girls age 4+, and also hold classes in Dalkey and Stillorgan. They entertained and impressed the judges with some wonderful dancing. So much so that the judges decided to award them with the Best Spirit of St Patricks Day award.
Best arts & entertainment: Signal Arts Centre
Signal Arts Centre provides a vehicle for working artists to make a valuable contribution to the community. They aim to raise the profile of artists and the arts within the community and to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible public. They had a wonderful entry in the parade this year which was a giant Chess set, entertaining people all along the route and then at the reviewing stand, where there was a giant game of chess to entertain the judges.
Best community: The Lawless Dance Academy
This year The Lawless Dance Academy celebrated their 4th birthday. They are community-based and have their studio on the Dargle road. They have just reached over 100 dancers and have some Dublin Leinster and all Ireland champions in their academy. They put on a great show on St Patrick’s day and impressed the judges at the reviewing stand. As a result, they were awarded the Best Community award.
Best marching/uniform: The Boomerang Band
We were extremely lucky to have a great selection of uniformed groups and marching bands in the parade this year and even welcomed a band all the way from New Jersey (USA) and of course welcomed back a Parade and Bray St Patrick Festival favourite – the Boomerang Band, who travel over every year from the UK. They are a wonderful supporter of the festival and play several concerts during the 5-day event. They were awarded the Best marching band and Fred came all the way over from the UK to accept the award on their behalf.
Best overall: Urban X Hip Hop
Urban X, run by Rachel Fisher, is a hip hop dance company based around the Bray area for 10 years now. They have many members of all ages from as young as 4 years old. There is no age limit with a class for everyone, and many adults who dance for fitness and for fun. Urban X understands the importance of movement and exercise but also the importance of being happy, enjoying life to the fullest, and being part of a community. They strive to share their passion and positivity with everyone and they really did that at the parade bringing such colour and fun to the day. It was a unanimous decision by the judges after watching every single one of their huge group take to the performance at the reviewing stand and it was some performance. Best over-all were Urban X.