Redheads come out to play at festival

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny declined an invitation to a red head convention in Crosshaven, Co Cork, over the weekend due to a prior commitment, but that didn’t stop 500 people with ginger locks from partying to raise funds for cancer research.

Joleen and Dennis Cronin, whose parents run Cronin’s pub in the town, held the first redhead convention last summer. Joleen said the event originated as a joke over a pint after the redheaded siblings decided to only invite their follically similar peers to a party.

The organisers said: “It was a joke where we were saying we would have a birthday party where we would only invite redheads. It just spiralled from there. It is a bit of light-hearted fun that raises funds for the Irish Cancer Society. About 1,000 people turned up this year — 500 were redheads. We had people from the midlands and Dublin turn up, and further away. First prize in the strawberry cupcake competition went to Rachel Neglia from Canada.”