St Patrick's Day festivities brought back to life

Once the St Patrick’s Day parade kicks off on the streets of Dublin at noon on 17 March, Aoife Carry, the artistic director, will finally be able to sit back and watch the fruits of her labour unfold.

With over a decade of international experience in creating magnificent circus and spectacle shows, Aoife is certainly qualified to lead the creative effort behind the country’s largest parade.

Her collaborations include world-renowned theatrical names like Cirque Du Soleil, Franco Dragone and MGM in large resident shows, arena tours, festivals, and outdoor events across Europe, the United States and China.

She returned to Ireland in 2020 with her husband, Mark, and family to live in Connemara.

Missing large-scale work and looking for something that would “scratch that itch” again, she came across the role of artistic director for the St Patrick’s Festival, and after putting in a job application, the rest is history.

“I only started in September. I have never worked in a parade, or organised a festival, so this is a challenge for me, but it is so exciting and great to be trusted with that opportunity,” she says.

Inspiring performance

Initially, Aoife trained and worked as an actress, but she didn’t like being told what to do.

“As an actress, that’s your entire job. I wanted to get into directing, seeing the bigger picture, looking at all the aspects of it and not just having one role.

“After university, I moved into directing; one of my first directing jobs was with a circus company,” says Aoife, who is originally from Dublin, but grew up in the Scottish countryside.

From there, she fell in love with creating shows that didn’t use language with big performances.

“I learned how the body can tell stories and how circus is about being in the present moment for the audience and for the performer,” she says.

Aoife’s husband Mark also works in the entertainment industry, so they’ve been able to work on the same shows, travelling the world with their kids. However, things changed when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and their jobs disappeared.

“After a few weeks of twiddling our thumbs, we had some time and started exploring ideas,” says Aoife.

In 2021, they founded Twisted Lane Productions, which allowed them to work together, develop ideas and create performances, all from their home in Connemara.

“It has been incredible to have that opportunity and such a steep learning curve at the same time. You go from having a team to it being just the two of you at your kitchen table.

“We produced our first show last year and are developing a second show this year,” says Aoife.

Before they went travelling, the couple were living in Tipperary, from where husband Mark comes from a farming background.

“I’d never lived in rural Ireland before, and even just things like the local drama group, you can see how much of a glue it is for people. It brings those rural communities together. I have never seen a professional theatre show sell out as quick as a community theatre. Every single community drama show sells out for however many nights it is on,” she says.

Collaboration and inspiration

Aoife loves that engagement with art that people will support because they own it and have produced it.

“It’s just as valuable and important as the big professional companies because it is still engagement,” she says of local theatre groups up and down the country.

She has been working on the parade in Dublin during the week and going home to Connemara at the weekend to run her company.

“I am from Dublin originally, but I grew up in Scotland in the countryside, so the city is a little bit overwhelming for me. Even though I am originally from the city, I find more peace in a rural environment,” she tells Irish Country Living.

When Aoife took on the role of artistic director of St Patrick’s Day Festival and Parade, she started reaching out to the companies that she wanted to engage with and shared her ambitions for the event.

“I was tasked with bringing the festival back to the city because it’s been a little bit removed from the city centre over the past number of years.

“We are putting a focus on bringing performance, art and entertainment onto the streets and engaging with as many people as we can,” she explains.

Across Saturday and Sunday, eight spaces around Dublin city centre will be used for a programme of events.

“It’s about how we can create opportunities for people to engage with the festival and where people get to see everything.

“For the TV cameras, the stage is perfectly set; if you’re watching it from home, you will see absolutely everything. But if you make your way into Dublin, and you’re two or three people back from the barrier, your view is limited,” says Aoife.

According to Aoife, people will notice improvements this year in the view of the parade you can physically see from street-level and in-person.

This year’s festival theme is ‘Adventures’, which for Aoife is a personal one because taking on this job has been a new adventure for her.

The parade entrants all took their time to consider what the theme meant to them and have interpreted it in their own way. This has created a varied display of floats with a lot of them being playful, fun and colourful.

“There is such a buzz around it. You’re kind of stepping into the TV and getting to experience it (behind the scenes). I am like a kid at the moment; I am so excited,” she says.

See stpatricksfestival.ie