By Frank McLynn, Grand Marshal,
for the Parade Magazine 2005

Sometime in 1995 Mike Spillane, an egregious and lovable character, thought about having a Parade in Munich to underline the presence and popularity of the Irish community in Munich, not to mention Germany. He broached the idea to Paul Daly, Alison Moffat and myself. We said "what the heck" and under the auspices of the Deutsch-Irischer Freundeskreis Bayern e.V. we started the wheels of motion to turn, albeit creakingly. None of us had any idea of how to put on such an event - daunting logistics, getting permission from the authorities, drumming up sponsorship to finance the parade, explaining to the uninitiated and oft times disinterested the significance of St. Patrick for Irish people worldwide and European Christianity in particular. As is often the case everything revolved around deadlines and March 12th. 1996 was ours. We formed an organising committee which gave birth to months of arguing, reconciliation, despair, euphoria, cajoling, sleepless nights, while at the same time we had to attend to our daily routine of jobs and families.

We expected around 300 people to take part and were given permission to march along the footpath but around 3000 turned up and we had to move out onto Leopoldstrasse, Munich's main thoroughfare and march from Odeonsplatz to Münchner Freiheit. The atmosphere was electrifying and the parade was peaceful attracting onlookers and participants of all nationalities and creeds, something which was the cornerstone of our fundamental idea: a Multi-Kulti event organized by the Irish in Munich. We all had the feeling that the world had taken notice of us and we bolstered our belief that anything is possible if you really want it.

This year will be no different and the intense excitement that characterises a parade which has grown in participation numbers from 3,000 to 15,000 is all-pervading, signal evidence that the 2005 parade will be another significant annual Irish event in the long and illustrious annals of Munich.

Frank McLynn
Grand Marshal