![\"Twenty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5006870_5_articleinline_Corbally_parade_1.jpg\" "\\"Twenty")
Twenty pupils attending the Busy Bees pre-school, at Park Gardens, Corbally, Limerick, marched alongside a local piper, Paul McMahon, five hundred metres to a roundabout, and back to their classroom. Picture: David Raleigh<\/p>\nIreland\u2019s tiniest and shortest St Patrick\u2019s Day parade kicked off the bank holiday festivities Monday, celebrating 25 years of marching from a pre-school in Limerick.<\/p>\n
Twenty pupils attending the Busy Bees pre-school, at Park Gardens, Corbally, marched alongside a local lone piper, five hundred metres to a roundabout and back to their classroom.<\/p>\n
Neighbours of the school and past pupils also marched behind the parade organised by Busy Bees owner Vivienne Vereker Campbell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just incredible to bring the community out every year,\u201d said Ms Vereker Campbell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wasn’t for the community I wouldn’t be here, they\u2019ve kept me alive and kept me going through recession, covid, and we kept our piper and our parade going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are marking our 25th year here in Park Gardens so I just wanted to give something back,\u201d said Ms Vereker Campbell, who organised free ice-creams and coffee for all the neighbourhood outside the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so proud to be still here 25 years on, I didn’t think it would last when I started, when I had three children on my first day, and it\u2019s grown and grown every year since,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The lone piper, Paul McMahon, has led the parade for 25 years, including in 2020, when during covid-19 social distancing rules, he continued the march on his own without the pre-school pupils.<\/p>\n
Twenty pupils attending the Busy Bees pre-school, at Park Gardens, Corbally, Limerick, marched alongside a local piper, Paul McMahon, five hundred metres to a roundabout, and back to their classroom. Picture: David Raleigh<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had four kids that have come through Busy Bees, it\u2019s a fantastic school,\u201d said Mr McMahon.<\/p>\n
What keeps him coming back year after year, \u201cis the delight on the kids faces\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s their parade, it\u2019s their chance to wave, and to shine and to see their parents smiling back at them.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a small little giving up of our time, but its such a rewarding cause, and fair play to Busy Bees, it\u2019s amazing they have been keeping this going for 25 years, and it\u2019s a privilege to be part of it,” said Mr McMahon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three -year-old Sonny J Lawlor was dressed all in green for the big day:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was brilliant, I\u2019m sonny, I\u2019m three.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four-year-old Chloe Healy, who donned a shamrock hat and green top and dress said the parade was \u201cthe best\u201d part of her day and she \u201cliked the ice cream\u201d.<\/p>\n
Three-year-old Liadh Cunnane who also took part in the parade said: \u201cI loved the ice cream and the marching.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four-year-old Twyla Avni Bhaskar said she would not eat the ice cream, but she loved the \u201cmarching\u201d.<\/p>\n
The main Limerick City St Patrick\u2019s Day parade on Tuesday will be live-streamed for the first time ever.<\/p>\n
Fifteen bands from across Ireland, UK, Ghana and the United States participated in the city\u2019s 54th Day International Band Championship on Sunday, with Banna Chluain Meala, from Clonmel Co Tipperary, taking the overall parade champions title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s tiniest and shortest St Patrick\u2019s Day parade kicked off the bank holiday festivities Monday, celebrating 25 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,6999,43,1907],"class_list":["post-350806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster","tag-news","tag-regional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}