St Paddy's Day Success

There was a real good feel to Wolverhampton yesterday as we recognised the contribution of our Irish community on St Patrick's Day. A full Irish breakfast was served to 70 invited guests from across Wolverhampton, with festivities starting at 7.15am.

The event was sponsored by the Wolverhampton Branch of the Allied Irish Bank, and was reckoned by all to be a huge success.

Councillor Phil Bateman Mayor of the City of Wolverhampton said " This was a first time celebration here in the city in this way of St Patrick's Day. What a great day it was!

The Irish breakfast in the Mayor's Parlour was very well attended, with not a spare space available. The Irish band kept up a steady beat of reels, and we all sung a few Irish favourites! There was a drop of Guinness to be had, even at that early hour! We also starred in BBC Radio WM's Adrian Goldberg Show as they took feed from our celebrations and fed the results through the radio to the region!

I wanted to celebrate St Patrick's Day with our Irish community and all the generation's from the years, that had made Wolverhampton the City that it is. This is the first time that we can find the Mayoralty being involved so centrally in this way.

We had a very good turn-out of a cross section of our community. I was really pleased that the Allied Irish Bank played a full role, they were instrumental in the success of the morning!

After the Irish breakfast the Mayoress and I attended a Mass at St Patrick's Church that was full and at the end of the Mass, the clergy invited me to speak to the 350 people gathered in the church.

Following the Mass we all went to the adjoining Community Centre where food and refreshment's were laid out and we mixed with the community chatting about St Patrick's Day and the contribution that individuals had made to Wolverhampton over the years.

In the afternoon we visited the Emerald Club for more St Patrick Day fun, where we enjoyed the dancing and the jokes, and just the great atmosphere that was being generated. I think that we shook more than several hundred hands during this period.

I am really proud that Mary and I have been the first Mayor and Mayoress of the City to engage with our Irish community and their relatives in this way. It was a brilliant day that we will both remember for a very long time . More than that I firmly believe that our efforts were very much appreciated by every one that we met yesterday."

Picture ; Mayor and Mayoress with Councillor Pat Byrne entertaining the guest's in the Mayor's Parlour during early morning St Patrick Day celebration.

Second Picture shows the effect of St Patrick's Day! Well known figure goes native!