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Snow joke as Laois delegation fail to make New York for St Patrick’s Day

One of the main Laois delegations scheduled to go to New York for last week’s St Patrick’s Day parade never made it as far as the Big Apple. In fact they didn’t even get out of the county.

Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council Tom Mulhall and Director of Services Gerry Murphy, along with their wives, were due to travel to New York last Tuesday on a four-day trip to represent Laois in the St Patrick’s Day parade. But because of a forecasted blizzard – and an expected 30 inches of snow – in New York, all flights were cancelled on Tuesday.

“We couldn’t get a rescheduled flight any sooner than late on Thursday night,” explained Cllr Mulhall. “And that was too late. It was very unfortunate because we were due to meet the IDA, Madison Logic (who recently bought out Portlaoise-based business Internal Results), and attend the Ireland-US Economic Relations Business Summit.”

They were also due to attend mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday morning and take part in the parade around the streets of the city.

The Offaly and Kildare delegations did make it to New York as their flights were scheduled for Wednesday.

Chairman of Offaly County Council is Eddie Fitzpatrick from outside Portarlington while the Offaly County Manager is Anne Marie Delaney who previously worked in Laois. Kildare County Manager Peter Carey – who was the Laois manager – was also on the trip.

“It was disappointing,” added Cllr Mulhall, “because we were looking forward to meeting the Laois people in New York.”

But all is not lost. The trip is likely to be rescheduled for the end of April/early May.

There was still plenty of local representation in the parade with Mountmellick native Tom Phelan leading the New York County Laois Association down 5th Avenue.

Laois Rose Kate Hyland also took part in the parade along with more than 40 of last year’s Rose of Tralee contestants.

SEE ALSO – Wired with Whelan: Stop bitching about St Patrick’s Day – the world is green … with envy