Due to circumstances, this has taken more than a month to produce. Reasons to live include days like this.
It was my first St. Patrick's Day in Limerick, and what a day it was!
I am still street homeless but that didn't stop me from having an awesome day.
I was up early, unsure what the buses would be like. I was at Raheen and I wanted to be in town early, we were starting at 9.30 but I left plenty of time. I had breakfast and sorted myself out, waited a while for the bus, and one arrived at 8 am.
In town I walked around and had some tea, waited at the train station. Used the toilet a number of times and had more tea. I was so nervous, terrified in fact, could I really do this? Could I be in the Limerick St. Patrick's Day parade?
I didn't know the others well. I walked round, and was made welcome, tea and good biscuits and craic, and then we walked down to Sarsfield Barracks where we'd start from. We had fun, we sang 'Limerick you're my lady'. We had a long wait in the wind up there, right up near Punches Cross, so some of us went to the shop. I had an Irish flag with a balloon, the balloon burst in the shop and gave everyone a heart attack.
Then, speaking of heart attacks, someone had a heart attack, not in our group but some distance down towards town, so an ambulance came screaming through, and the parade was delayed by 40 minutes.
Eventually we set off, stopping and starting as we did. We were behind the wonderful street theatre performers and enjoyed their act as we marched.
It was a fantastic day, the crowds were huge, I didn't recognise the the streets, behind barriers and with the huge crowds, everyone cheering and waving. It was amazing. I only really knew where we were when we got to Henry Street Garda Station, and walked down Henry Street, past the Stands and onto Arthur's Quay.
These were my signs, the last one I held up every time the boss wasn't looking, and after the parade as I sat and drank my tea, and do you know what? After years of searching, I finally found the Irish sense of humour through that sign:
I had been worried about my ability to walk the whole route without a stick, but I did it. No problem, we crossed the bridge and ended up near Merchant's Quay.
The crowds were huge, groups were still marching, I found my way back through the crowds to a toilet and then some tea and then coffee with a friend, and so on, it was a fantastic day, not crazy like Dublin, bigger than Longford and Wexford by a long way, a real party atmosphere without everything being swamped, it was easy to get tea and toilets after the parade, which is what mattered to me at the time.
