This year’s London Saint Patrick’s Parade (Sunday 16th March 2008) started from Hyde Park Corner at 12
noon passed Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Trafalgar Square and finished in Whitehall.

The Parade included approx 4,000 participants made up of marching bands colourful costumes, community groups, Irish dancing schools, pageantry and floats with Irish music, costumes and characters.

Thousands line the streets to watch and cheer on this colourful spectacle. We are happy to report we had a large walking contingency from Carlow who proudly marched behind the Carlow Association Banner. The weather was typically Irish “wind and rain” but it added to the atmosphere and we were all kept on our toes (literally) trying hard to keep our new “Carlow colours” proudly flying high.

The reason being that the GLA on the day made available 33 flags representing the 32 counties of Ireland plus a flag to represent all 2nd Generation Irish (London Irish Flag). Those counties that were represented at the Parade collected their flag and proudly displayed it with their own individual Banners. A great day was had by all and it was an opportunity to meet old and new friends alike. Our thanks to TJ, Margaret and Laura Kelly to who travelled over from Carlow especially to join us in the parade and to Jim O’Neill a life long member of the Association who never fails to turn up come rain or shine.

Carlow Emmigrants still have a spring in their step! The passion felt for Carlow was evident in South London recently when the County Carlow Association London held their Spring event on Friday 29th Feb 2008.

Two hundred people danced the night away to the tunes of ‘Cupla’. As the advert said, ‘On tour from Garryhill’, Cúpla played at popular London venues over the weekend including Crawley’s ‘Irish Party Night’.

But the big event of the weekend was the Association’s dance at Saint Boniface, in Tooting. Carlow Association Chairperson, Claire Sturley said ‘London is a very big place with Carlow people living in every Borough. In the springtime we try to bring our event to a different area each year, to make it easier for Carlow people to get together’. It certainly worked. This year the Committee was joined by some people they have not seen in years. Claire continues ‘It is a great joy to bring people together who have lost touch. It is so easy to pick up where you left off when you have something in common like your home, Carlow’.

Visitors to the London Carlow Association website who use Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) may be experiencing some problems relating to the way the website is displayed.

IE7 users users may notice that the boxes that appear on the left and right-hand of the webpage have gaps within them and are also not parallel to one another. Users of Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), Firefox, Opera and Safari browsers are not affected.

The issues relate to the way that IE7 renders webpages: IE7 doesn’t yet comply with current web standards. We are currently working on these issues and hope to find a workaround, or ‘hack’, over the next week. If we are unable to find a workaround within this time, we may need redesign the website.

In the meantime, if you would like to view the website as it was intended please install Firefox (which IE7 is modelled on). You can find a free Firefox download at www.celtic-irish.co.uk/shop

Our AGM was held on Tuesday 3rd April at The Irish Centre and was very well attended, in fact, the best for some years.  It was great to see so many long standing members turn up and the event proved to be a great opportunity for some of us to catch up with old friends.

Thanks to everyone who formed the committee and a special welcome to the new committee members:-  Margaret Dixon & John O’Brien.  Since the AGM Cecilia Byrne has agreed to be co-opted on.  We are pleased also to say that the following committee members also remain with us:  Brenda Clarke, Jenny Schwab & Peter O’Brien.

Our officers were voted in as follows:

• Margaret Doyle – President
• Bill Schwab – Vice President
• Claire Nolan Sturley – Chairperson
• John Nolan – Vice Chair
• Ned Dunbar – Treasurer
• Catherina Clarke – Secretary
• Noreen Nolan – Assistant Secretary
• Chrissy O’Brien – PRO

We look forward to a busy and rewarding year ahead working together in order to carry on the great traditions of the Carlow Association within London and the south-east area

The Carlow association helped to celebrate a fantastic 2007 Saint Patrick’s Weekend at the Irish Centre on Sunday 18th March. The mass at the Irish Centre was a wonderful celebration, with a traditional harpist playing and parts of the service in Gaeilge. The Irish Ambassador, Daithi O’Cheallaigh and his wife attended also.

John Connolly, Chairman of the Council of Irish County Associations took the opportunity to wish the Ambassador every good luck in his new post and thanked him for all the work he has done for all the Irish Counties during his time in London.

The parade and festival were a great success with larger crowds than ever attending.  The Carlow contingent was well supported and we were delighted to be joined by people who came from as far as Norfolk and members of the Dunbar family who travelled from Carlow, specially. Let’s make next year’s Parade the biggest and best ever.  You can’t say we have not given you enough notice!