Crawley’s Celtic and Irish Cultural Society staged one of their biggest St Patrick’s Day events ever and this time outside of the town of Crawley.

The Brendan Behan band combine with Ciaróg to provide a great sound

In a move away from the Town Centre the CICS joined forces with Lingfield Pk Racecourse and turned the day green with live music dancing displays, bagpipes,  kiddies games and lots of shenanigans as Ireland’s National day was celebrated with a real ‘craic’.

Full of colour

John Nolan the chair of the organising body said “The logistics of organising the annual parade and celebrations are becoming harder each year in Crawley, which is a real shame.  We seem to be stangled with more red tape each year.  The new arrangements in creating road closures has necessitated us as organisers to enter into a contract with a suitable road traffic marshalling company such as the Police or a private organisation set up to do this and the costs are far beyond our budget.

Added to that the number of volunteers and stewards have dropped off in recent years.

'Bionic' Leprachaun & Crawley Rose Grace Kenny

So in keeping with our objectives we entered into partnership with Lingfield Pk racecourse and are delighted with its success.  Even though the weather was wet the layout of the premises at Lingfield allowed all our events to take place indoors which was great. There was a great Irish party atmosphere about the day and something Lingfield park are very pleased about.”

Also introduced to the crowd was Grace Kenny Crawley’s nomination in the Rose Of Tralee Contest who got a good luck cheer from the attendance and was on duty to present the winning owners of the races with their prizes

The whole day event got a big thumbs up from the crowd. Ciara Murphy from Dublin a regular goer to Lingfield  races said “I would like to thank the organisers for such a fab event. Great day, great craic, one of the best Paddy’s Days I’ve had in years and I didn’t even win that much money”

Debbie Hay the marketing manager at Lingfield Pk was more than impressed with the day ” It was a marvellous day and we’d like to thank the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society for helping to organise such a successful event”

With this success the CICS are now in discussions with Lingfield Pk regarding an Irish Race night in Autumn.

Paul and Mike Stanworth of Emerald Element

The Mooney sisters gave a great dancing display

Piper Barry Murphy from Cork meets up with Irish jockey Jimmy Quinn from Wexford and Crawley Rose, Grace Kenny from Carlow and Crawley.

Grace Kenny, Crawley's representative in the Rose of Tralee Contest presents a prize to the winning owners of the 3.15 race