‘Save Our Planet’ and ‘Love Nature’ were big themes during excellent Birr Vintage Parade

CLIMATE Change and the crisis affecting our beautiful planet and many species on the planet were big themes during this year’s 55th Birr Vintage Week Parade on Sunday afternoon August 6.
Birr Tidy Towns and Cloughjordan Circus Club entered two very colourful displays which drew our attention to the magnificence and fragility of the natural world; and the Parade was officially launched by Birr woman, acclaimed photographer and nature lover Tina Claffey.
This was a long parade with a lot of entries watched by big crowds. It was a parade which had a lot of colour, dynamism and energy.
MC Emma Nee Haslam expertly guided us through it all, telling us what we were looking at as each entry passed through the town’s main square.
Emma said Vintage Week is about celebrating “our town’s rich heritage and culture, steeped in tradition”. It’s also about celebrating our community, she said, and the continued success of the festival is due to the community being strongly behind it. “Thank you so much for keeping the Vintage flame alive.” She warmly welcomed the many Birr people who return home every year from abroad for the festival.
The MC extended a warm happy 90th birthday to Frank McNamara, one of the founding members of Vintage Week; and she extended best wishes to Ann O’Meara, who was a member of the festival committee and hired vintage costumes for many years.
Local classical singer Yvonne O’Toole performed a fine rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann.
Tina Claffey said it was a great pleasure to be with everyone today. She said she felt “incredibly honoured and truly humbled” to be officially launching the parade and festival. She pointed out that it’s one of the oldest festivals in the country, dating back to 1968. “My parents moved to Birr in 1967, to begin their lives here and I remember as a child attending the vintage parades and being mesmerised by the beautiful cars, music, dancing, horse and carriages, steam engines.
“From 2000 to 2009 I lived in Botswana. When I returned to Birr my eyes were opened by local man John Feehan to the marvels of the natural world around us, and I fell in love once again with Birr and this beautiful county.” Inspired by the unsung beauties of Offaly’s natural world, Tina began taking photographs on a microcosmic plane, revealing the splendid universes that exist at a tiny level. As her eyes were opened by John Feehan, she in turn has opened the eyes of countless others.
She said she was looking forward very much to seeing the entries by Cloughjordan Circus Club and Birr Tidy Towns, both of which would be highlighting and celebrating the insect world in our county.
Tina extended a “huge thank you” to the hardworking Vintage Week committee, and all the committees throughout the decades who kept the show on the road. “It is now one of the most popular festivals in the whole of Ireland.” She also thanked all of the local businesses who are so supportive every year.
The parade began with a Colour Parade by the Nenagh branch of the Organisation of National Ex-Service Personnel.
The cars followed next, all together in one group in single file; in all shapes and sizes and many different colours. Some of the cars looked swish and sophisticated, others were old and beautiful. There were perhaps fifty cars in the parade. Most of them had obviously received a great deal of care and attention, and looked magnificent. Among these vintage car lovers were stalwarts of the parade who have returned year after year for many years, including Dan Coolahan (who this year entered three vehicles including a 1916 truck), Pat O’Brien (on his tandem bike), and Eugene King in his 1952 Hillman Minx Convertible. While there were some cars from the first half of the 20th Century, many of the vehicles were from the seventies, eighties and nineties. A lot of these cars from the last three decades of the 20th Century were stunning, such as a beautiful red jaguar, a 1981 white Rolls Royce, and a 1987 Chevrolet Corvette. There were also three impressive looking landrovers from the early sixties.
The cars were followed by another stalwart of the parade, the Cavanagh family and their magnificent 1892 McLaren steam engine.
They were followed by the colourful Cal y Canto theatre group from Burgos, Spain; Birr Rugby Football Club; Gaelscoil na Laochra; Bellydancers; and a Sauna (!).
Next came the Birr Tidy Towns float with “an urgent message from Mother Earth. Planet Earth is our home. There is no Planet B. Reduce, reuse, recycle.” The MC extended “a very special thank you to the Ukrainian volunteers who helped create the Birr Tidy Towns float.”
They were followed by Cloughjordan Circus Club which, working in collaboration with artist Caoimhe Dunn, celebrated the works of Mary Ward and Tina Claffey and an “amazing world of wonder”. Their entry featured people dressed as insects pedalling unicycles.
The Black Bull Threshing Festival float was once again excellent this year. Their festival is taking place on Sunday August 27th.
Other entries included: the Bula Bula Samba Band; Janet Whyte Spunner on her mobility aid with her three dogs; Gravity Dance (which offers dancing lessons in Birr for children aged 4 to 18); Joe Hyland in his old fashioned milk truck; about twenty tractors (most of them in excellent condition); and the impressive Sionn Mhara rowing boat from Banagher.
A number of prize winners were announced during Vintage Sunday. They included the following:

Children's Best Dressed
Winners: Amelia & Alex de Chaumont
Ann's Best Dressed on Vintage Sunday
Ann Finnane
Shop Window Displays
1st: W.K Fayle; 2nd: Fox's Pharmacy; 3rd: RJ Barber & Sons.
The Damien Deegan memorial cup for 2023 was presented to Eugene King for his 1952 Hillman Minx.
Parade Winners:
Overall winner: Birr Tidy Towns; Community group winner: Cloughjordan Circus Club World of Wonder; Sports group winner: Birr Rugby Club; Highly commended: Black Bull Threshing.