Dundalk parade was cancelled despite ‘more than sufficient' funding, documents show

The Dundalk St Patrick’s Day Parade was cancelled despite the Louth County Council Chief Executive believing funding was "more than sufficient".

Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed the Chairperson of the parade's organising committee cited “a lack of confirmed funding and insufficient communication” for its cancellation.

It comes despite Louth County Council Chief Executive David Conway telling senior councillors that the budget “should be more than sufficient” for the parade to go ahead. 

The annual parade was cancelled in January, before being saved after a meeting between stakeholders. 

The documents showed the estimated costs of holding the parade had spiralled and were just shy of €60,000, almost double that of 2025. 

The documents also show the parade’s organisation committee had made a request to Louth County Council for additional funding to hold the parade on top of the local authority’s €7,500 contribution under the festival grant scheme. 

The committee requested that Louth County Council cover insurance costs for hosting the proposed two-day event and provide funding for barriers to help with traffic management. 

The estimated cost of the insurance was said to be €5,500 while another €2,950 was required for barriers. 

As part of that request the committee also called on the local authority to recognise St Patrick’s Day as a “distinct entity within the council’s annual budget”.

“By allocating dedicated funding to St Patrick’s Day celebrations, the Council can ensure sustained support for this important event, enabling better planning, enhanced programming and greater benefits for the community year after year,” the request read. 

In mid-January, David Minto, Chairperson of the committee wrote to Louth County Council to confirm the parade would not go ahead. 

Mr Minto cited “a lack of confirmed funding and insufficient communication” for the parade’s cancellation. 

He said “organising an event of this scale requires early certainty around funding, approvals, and coordination with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the parade can be delivered safely, responsibly, and to the standard expected by the community.  Unfortunately these conditions were not in place in time to proceed for 2026.” 

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Upon learning of the parade’s cancellation, Fine Gael councillor and Cathaoirleach of the Dundalk Municipal District, Robert Nash wrote to Council Chief David Conway and Fianna Fáil councillor Seán Kelly to warn of “potential kick back” from the public and called for a solution to be found. 

Cllr Nash said a total of €34,500 in funding was available to hold the parade, which he called “more than adequate to cover the costs”. 

He said the funding would be sufficient if Louth County Council were to assist on the day and if the event was “scaled back a little”. 

In response, Mr Conway said he fully agreed and said the €34,500 budget “should be more than sufficient” to organise the parade, before confirming his team was planning to hold a meeting with stakeholders to “establish a concrete plan of action”. 

Cllr Nash told Mr Conway and Cllr Kelly that “a conversation needs to happen as to how we can future proof the running of this event on an annual basis and avoid this happening every year”. 

However, 2026 was not the first year the St Patrick’s Day organising committee had cited problems with staging the event. 

In 2025, Independent councillor Maeve Yore, who was on the parade’s organising committee noted that there were “challenges” in organising the festival.

While Mr Minto, also acknowledged there were funding challenges and organisational obstacles that year too, and documents show the organising committee had a request for an additional €2,500 from Louth County Council turned down. 

It also revealed Louth County Council had made a “special once-off contribution” of nearly €26,000 “in 2023, in an effort to recommence the Dundalk Parade post-Covid”. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.