Coronavirus has wreaked havoc globally with a ban on mass gatherings impacting countries in the four corners of the globe.
St Patrick’s Day parades from Newry to New York and Armagh to Australia have all been axed because of the coronavirus Covid-19.
But have they!
The good folk of Armagh – the home of St Patrick’s – have had other ideas this afternoon.
In a show of incredible community spirit, hundreds of cars have turned up for what has been dubbed a “world’s first” traveling St Patrick’s carnival.
Mass gatherings have been banned and social distancing cautioned, but locals have found a novel way around that, adding a bit of light into a gloomy global crisis – the weather was going to deter anyone either.
At 3pm this afternoon – after a makeshift social media campaign – hundreds of cars assembled on the Farmacaffley Road, just a few miles outside Armagh City.
Vehicles lined up in single file in the order they arrived facing in the direction of the Newtownhamilton Road before the procession proceeded out onto the Newtownhamilton Road and into Armagh City playing music and tooting horns.
One local resident told Armagh I: “I have never seen anything like this; there are 100s of cars with every flag you can imagine driving every street beeping! This is great community spirit.”
Seems to be an in car parade at the Shambles in Armagh? Not sure what’s going on but it’s either somethings going down or just a nice wee bitta community spirit for St Patrick’s Day! @ArmaghI #armagh #StPatricksDay #socialdistancingparade pic.twitter.com/XTUTBFfVi6
— Caoímhe McNeill (@caoimhemcneill) March 17, 2020
