Sure isn’t that grand!
St. Patrick’s Festival 2021
March 12 – 17, 2021
on St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV) at www.stpatricksfestival.ie
#SPF2021 #SPFTV #stpatricksfestival
A Corkonian sits in her (pretend) Dublin home when a call comes through. A life changing call, inviting her to whip on the green jersey, step up for the country and commit to a six day stint in the most important job in Ireland. Well, maybe the most important virtual job in Ireland. For a few days. No, not to take over from the President, but rather to accept the role of Grand Marshal for the national St. Patrick’s Festival 2021. Well, the virtual Grand Marshal for the virtual St. Patrick’s Festival.
Enter stage left comedian, satirist, writer, actor and proud Cork woman (and possibly soon to be exiled from the People’s Republic for ever more), Tara Flynn.
Today, the national St. Patrick’s Festival is delighted to reveal the glorious Tara Flynn as host of SPF TV and Grand Marshal of this year’s virtual Festival. Get set for some Cork-style hilarity and hijinx as Tara hosts six great virtual days and nights on St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV), the new dedicated TV channel which will offer more than 100 fantastic, free events from March 12 - 17, in celebration of our national day. SPF TV will broadcast to 1.1 million homes in Ireland through the Oireachtas TV channel and stream globally at stpatricksfestival.ie, every day from 9.30am through to late night, kicking off this coming Friday and running right up to St. Patrick’s Day.
Of the virtual honour, Tara commented today: “Listen, I might love Brigid - she’s a goddess! - but that’s not to say I don’t have a lot of grá for our St. Patrick. How could we not love him when he used to get us a day off of school? Plus I haven’t seen a snake in ages. To be asked to be the Grand Marshal of this year’s virtual St. Patrick’s Festival is a great honour. I’ve never felt more Irish! Plus they asked. I mean, it’s virtual but you could say I’m virtually delighted!”
St. Patrick’s Festival Interim Director Anna McGowan said: “We were searching for the right person to host St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV), someone who would be a great representative of the Irish spirit and well able for the challenge of presenting a global broadcast. We approached Tara Flynn and were delighted when she agreed. She’s a fantastic ambassador for Ireland, a great host for SPF TV and as she is ‘leading out’ the virtual St. Patrick’s Festival, she also makes perfect sense as our honorary virtual Grand Marshal this year. We’re delighted Tara has accepted our invitation and while she pitched us some, er, interesting ideas including Irish dancing up O’Connell Street, we’re as happy to keep her safe and sound in a studio in Dublin.”
Join Tara for six great virtual days and nights on St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV), a dedicated TV channel, which launches on March 12 and runs every day from 9.30am until late night, right up to St. Patrick’s Day. SPF TV will be accessible globally at stpatricksfestival.ie and on rte.ie/culture and on TVs in homes throughout the nation on Oireachtas TV, which can be found on all TV provider platforms in Ireland - Saorview Channel 22, Virgin Media Channel 207, Sky Channel 517, eir Vision Channel 504, and Vodafone Channels 201, 207 and 208.
Dúisigh Eire! Awaken Ireland! is the theme of this year’s Festival, a clarion call to the Irish across the world to throw off the long, dark months and rise to embrace the brighter days ahead. It promises to be a positive and uplifting celebration of our incredible people, our beautiful island and our community bonds, connecting our family of 80 million across the world through music, theatre, art, performance, poetry, storytelling, traditional arts, virtual tours, food, culture, children’s events and much more.
