Katie Taylor to be parade's grand marshal

THREE TIMES world boxing champion and Olympic medal hopeful Katie Taylor will be the grand marshal of the Dublin St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Taylor (24) is the latest sports star to be chosen to head the parade and she follows in the footsteps of GAA commentator Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, former Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner and former world athletics champion Eamonn Coghlan.

Details of other parades around the country, including Cork and Limerick, were also announced yesterday.

Taylor is also the International Amateur Boxing Association’s World Female Boxer of the Year for last year, a testimony to her domination of the sport.

She suffered a rare defeat last week in controversial circumstances when her Bulgarian opponent apologised for a result which did not reflect Taylor’s dominance of the fight.

Taylor said she was “thrilled” to be asked to be the grand marshal. “I’m always proud to represent Ireland but it’s usually in a boxing ring, so this will be a completely different experience for me. The parade is always great fun and I’m really looking forward to being involved on the day,” she said.

This year’s festival will have a literary theme based on a recent short story by Booker prize-winning author Roddy Doyle called Brilliant, about the black dog of depression which stole the city’s funny bone.

The story, which is published on the St Patrick’s Day festival website (stpatricksfestival.ie), will be interpreted by many of the pageant companies taking part.

The St Patrick’s Festival takes place from Wednesday, March 16th, to Sunday, March 20th, with the parade taking place as usual on St Patrick’s Day.

Organisers of the festival in Cork hope to attract more than 100,000 people to the city over four days for concerts, currach racing and céilís. The old Cork airport terminal will be home to “Terminal Convention”, an art, music and discursive event featuring leading and emerging artists and musicians. Full details are available at corkstpatricksfestival.ie

In Limerick, four of the State’s top sporting stars will lead the parade as the city celebrates being crowned 2011 European City of Sport. Ireland and Munster rugby hero John Hayes; transatlantic rower, Seán McGowan; Limerick GAA star, Gary Kirby and former soccer player/manager Eoin Hand have been announced as the 2011 grand marshals for Limerick’s St Patrick’s Day Parade. More than 3,500 participants will take part in the Limerick parade, billed as the largest in the State.

For further details see limerick.ie/stpatricksfestival

MOSCOW PARADE CANCELLED: CONCERN OVER TRAFFIC CITED:

MOSCOW HAS cancelled its long-running St Patrick’s Day Parade amid complaints over its impact on the city’s traffic problems and concerns about cold weather.

The sacking by president Dmitry Medvedev last September of the parade’s champion, former mayor Yuri Luzhkov, weakened its cause, with the new City Hall supremo Sergei Sobyanin setting the citys chronic traffic problems as a key priority.

City authorities were not in favour of an event causing city centre traffic chaos on the Sunday after St Patricks Day, which had become a source of bemusement rather than cross-cultural celebration to many Muscovites, with complaints too from citizens about disruption.

An incessant chorus of thousands of car horns last year signified the anger of motorists held up by police for the parade, almost drowning out the music while a motley collection of floats and Irish dancers trundled past.

Diplomatic relations between Ireland and Russia have been strained in recent times following the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Dublin in connection with the production of false Irish passports for a spy ring uncovered in the US last year. However, this has not been linked to the cancellation of the parade.

The Irish Ambassador to Russia, Philip McDonagh, said instead of the parade, a concert was being held which would include Irish piano virtuoso Miceál O’Rourke, and backed by Moscow City Hall.

Mr McDonagh described it as “an experiment we are trying this year in view of the cold weather and the priority that is being given at present to resolving Moscow’s traffic problems”.

Large crowds lined the streets for the event in its heyday, with police and army bands reflecting the official backing.

There was embarrassment two years ago, however ,when Muscovites who were members of a paintball club wearing IRA uniforms were inadvertently allowed to join the official parade by police, marching past the official reviewing stand with dignitaries.

Started in 1992 by Luzhkov and Aer Rianta, the event had run every year, apart from three years since 1998 after Russia’s economic crash.

DIARMAID FLEMING