Munich shrugged off grey skies and terror concerns to go all-green on Sunday with a colourful St Patrick’s Day parade of marching bands, an inflatable leprechaun on a unicorn and 11 bewildered Irish wolfhounds.
Once again the Bavarian capital secured its reputation as the most Irish place on mainland Europe, with city mayor Dieter Reiter singing and playing guitar onstage for the crowd alongside his friend and local Irish grandee Paul Daly and band.
“It was great fun, particularly when we had a power outage and the crowd just sang along to bridge the gap,” said Deiter Reiter. “I’m happy we were able to have a peaceful parade, celebrating people, it’s an important signal we sent today.”
A month ago two were killed and 39 injured when a car raced into a trade union march. City authorities and police stepped up visible and invisible security measures but reported no serious incidents on Sunday apart from a man hospitalised with a suspected heart attack.
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Besides the singing mayor, the most popular attraction was a small army of Irish wolfhounds including Cilli and Rosa, two trained therapy animals from nearby Deggendorf.
“They’re gentle giants so they’ll need two days to come down from all this excitement,” said owner Bärbel Neumayer.
Munich’s entire Odeonsplatz area was a party zone on Sunday with two stages for dancing, singing crowds and food and drink stands.
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Surveying his first Munich St Patrick’s Day as Irish consul general here was Killarney man James C O’Shea. Alongside a new Enterprise Ireland office, he and his team of three will focus on promoting Irish economic and community links with Bavaria and neighbouring Baden-Württemberg.
“They are two of the strongest states in Germany,” he said. “Ireland-Bavaria trade ties alone have had over 20 per cent growth in 2022 and 2023 alone.”
With no ministerial representative, Fianna Fáil’s Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú – visiting her daughter Rachel in town – stepped up.
“This is my fourth visit, there is such a huge Irish community in Munich,” she said. “I want to work on building these ties as an MEP.”
The parade is a massive annual endeavour for an army of Irish volunteers and Munich-Irish network head Derek McDonnell. He said the huge crowd proved once more that “Irish-Munich connections are strong and growing”.
Munich’s city government makes a crucial contribution, he added, with a €95,000 grant that helps cover considerable security costs.
For leading local politician and mayoral candidate Clemens Baumgärtner the grant is “money well spent that comes back to the city many times over”.
Christian Scharpf, his successor as Munich’s economic chief, welcomed the parade as a “great day out for all, including those with lower incomes”.
“The St Patrick’s celebrations,” he added, “make a huge contribution to making Munich a liveable city for all.”
