Kilkenny:Celebrations in the city were described as "a disaster" and "a disgrace" by members of the public.
The decision to cancel the traditional St Patrick's Day parade in Kilkenny and replace it with a street festival has led to bitter recriminations.
Some of those attending pointed to a lack of crowd control measures. There were also missing acts.
"This is a disaster and an accident waiting to happen," said an off-duty soldier on Kilkenny's High St as he led his family away from the St Patrick's Day festivities. He said the event was "a disgrace, health and safety-wise".
The chairman of the voluntary organising committee, Green Party Cllr Malcolm Noonan, said: "We were going to abandon the event because of safety concerns after just one hour." He also revealed that at least 10 stewards failed to turn up.
The festivities were hampered by poor planning and inadequate security despite the presence of gardaí and members of the Civil Defence.
Some of the advertised attractions, including Nigerian drummers and a Lebanese bozzoki band, failed to show up.
A display of children's dancing on the narrow High Street created a surging crowd unable to see because there was no raised platform and no crash barriers.
Father of three David Murphy said he was outraged and had called gardaí to request assistance. He was one of dozens of members of the public who expressed their anger about the festival format, bitterly criticised the decision not to hold a parade, and said the national holiday had been ruined for the children.
Kathleen Walsh, from Kilkenny, thought "it was a total disaster". Anuska Gutierrez from Spain said "it was very dangerous" and "not organised properly".
On Saturday evening, Mayor Martin Brett (FG), who had left the festivities early with other officials, was unaware of the turn of events until told by The Irish Times. He was shocked to hear this and said he would order an immediate review to find out what went wrong.
Frederika Grace, a German woman living in Kilkenny, complained that her two children couldn't see anything and that it was badly organised. Neil Burke and Helen Jones from Liverpool were "disappointed by the poor organisation".
By 3.30pm crowds were streaming away from the city centre, especially families with children. Typical was the Cooney family, who had travelled from Co Laois "hoping to see a parade", and described the event as one with "nothing to see".
Local Fáilte Ireland spokesman Declan Murphy said the organisers believed the parade format had become somewhat jaded and claimed "this was a good experiment" and "we did our best".
During the weekend local politicians privately agreed that the event had been a fiasco and very damaging to Kilkenny's reputation.
