Record numbers turn out for parade with eastern promise

LARGE groups of eastern Europeans wearing bright ginger wigs and over-sized green hats would normally have been a centre-piece at a St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Yesterday they merely formed the onlookers in the crowd but their significant presence among the thousands of revellers fitted nicely with the chosen ethos of cultural diversity which marked this St Patrick’s Day parade.

The cold but dry conditions meant record numbers crammed the parade’s route and the chosen theme ‘Monsters of the Marsh’ was a particular hit with the younger spectators.