Leitrim Samhain Parade organisers call for increased funding to support community arts
Now in its 18th year, the community-led festival brings together schools, artists and organisations from across North Leitrim, while organisers are calling for more support for local arts.
Another year meant another Samhain marching up the streets of Manorhamilton this November.
For 18 years, the people of Manorhamilton and communities across North Leitrim have come together each Samhain to celebrate and pay tribute to the traditions and stories of Samhain.
The Samhain Parade brings together local schools and community organisations from across the region. Through creative workshops, students and the entire community are supported in developing artwork, costumes and ideas that will ultimately form part of the parade.
This year’s parade had a wider variety of artists involved, with workshops from the Armagh Rhymers, Pat Fox's Ren Boys, the Cluainín Carnival Arts, and Simon Kamanga, who taught traditional Zambian dance.
The festival included children from local schools St Claire’s Comprehensive, St Claire’s National, the Gaelscoil Cluainin, as well as Acroaer Dancing from Sligo and the Stick Fighting group in Manorhamilton.
It focused on the story of Macha, an Irish warrior queen, a goddess, and a woman of extraordinary speed and strength who appears throughout Irish Mythology.
The festival focuses on Queen Maeve’s invasion of Ulster to capture the brown bull of Cooley in Irish mythology, when the Ulster men were too weak to fight with their labour pains, and only the boy warrior Cú Chulainn could defend Ulster against Maeve.
Creating something beautiful and locally sourced is at the heart of the parade, said the festival organiser.
“Rather than being a spectacle created elsewhere and brought to the town, the parade is built locally, with generations of people contributing to its creation. All ages are included, from young children to adults in their 80s,” said Armstrong
“The process of creativity in community is just as important as the end result, and we strive every year to produce a spectacular event”
The parade is supported by funding streams including the Shared Island programme, but Dee stresses that she hopes they can get more funding in the future to support local arts like this.
“It would be brilliant to have that bit more funding, because what we do with the money is way beyond what really it should be,”
“We don't get paid enough for what we do. But we would love to get that recognition and that money, a little bit more money to keep doing this.”