The organisers of the annual St Patrick’s Day parade in Enniskillen say the event will not go ahead this year.
The Project St Patrick committee said it had not been able to secure enough floats to perform at the parade due to uncertainty caused by Covid-19 restrictions.
Up to 15,000 people have attended the annual parade in recent years, but now the event has been cancelled for the third year in a row.
“It is with genuine reluctance that the voluntary committee of Project St Patrick must announce that there will be no county parade this year in Enniskillen,” a statement from the committee said.
“Given the lateness of the hour of restrictions lifting, coupled with the sense of unease which still remains amongst the community, we were unable to bring you the quality of floats you have become accustomed to.
“Bands have not been practicing, groups not meeting and schools and businesses don’t know what one day will look like to the next, covid has left almost everyone understandably non-committal.
“No-one is as disappointed as us but we did not want to let you down, even with a scaled back event.”
However, the group added it was already looking forward to next year’s event and called for anyone interested in volunteering to get in touch.
“We want to thank those groups that did get in touch, we trust your enthusiasm rolls over to 2023 because we are pledging to start planning now for next year to come back bigger and better than ever before with a festival to meet all expectations.
“Hopefully Enniskillen will also be looking its finest and will provide a fitting backdrop for an event we can all be proud of.
“To pull this off, we will need many volunteers on the day and are always welcoming of new community spirited members to our committee, so please get in touch if it’s something you’d like to be part of.”
