St. Patrick’s Georgetown took home the best overall parade entry trophy in the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Des Moines on March 17. Record numbers of participants and viewers enjoyed a picture-perfect day for a parade. The entire Georgetown parade entry comprised a city block of floats and walkers with the latest float created for this year being a 1/10 scale replica of the real Blarney Castle in Ireland.
The float (as well as the other support floats) was crafted by Karl Arnold, Rick Crall, Jim Keller and Dave Keller, all of the Norwalk, Iowa, area. They are all fourth and fifth generation descendants of Irish immigrants who settled in the Georgetown area and built the “Cathedral in the Wilderness” which still stands and is home to the Parish of St. Patrick’s. They all agreed it was a “labor of love” motivated by honor for the church and community so many call “home.” Nearly 300 Georgetown parishioners, natives, fans and friends accompanied the floats in the parade.
The Weller, Iowa, float honoring the former St. Mary’s Church and that community won the best Clan award in the parade.
I LOVE that float. We have a signature Blarney Castle float in our St Patty’s parade every year. kBut this year, we wanted to do it up better. Yours’ is the model (if you don’t mind us being copy cats), we intend to follow. Our family name is McCarthy so we consider The Blarney Castle (built by our ancester Cormac himself), our ancestral home. I just came back from a trip to Ireland and the Castle, our castle, is magnificent. We may actually make an attempt to get in touch with you as to how you built it. I don’t see the date on this notice, but today is September 9 2015, and we are already planning for st Patty’s. Thank you and here is my e mail in case you would like to contact me. catherinepansey@yahoo.com Also, my facebook page is catherine McCarthy Pansey and I have some photos of our simpler float.