St Patricks Parade Birmingham 2009 Tipperary County Association Today was the Birmingham St Patrick's Day Parade. It was the best weather for some time (probably since 2003 when the route was different).

As usual I paraded with the Birmingham Tipperary County Association which is led by Bromsgrove Independent Councillor David McGrath. Often there are quite a few acoustic musicians, but I was the only one this time.

The song we sing (A long way to tipperary) was in fact written by a London based composer, but the chords I have are as follows:

       G                             C           G
It's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go,
                                    A        A7     D
It's a long way to Tipperary to the sweetest girl I know!
    G               C                  B7
Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester Square!
       G                      C G       A  D       G
It's a long, long way to Tipperary, but my heart's right there.

My own belief is that really there should be a D on the word "right" in the last line.

This time I took my camera and tried to photograph as many of the parade as possible whilst waiting to move off. The staged photo of the Tipperary Association was easy:

Behind us initially were the Sandwell Dhol players. We had arranged with them that they would stop playing so we could sing, but later in the parade the organisers moved them way from us. Being acoustic we could not compete with the drum groups or pipe bands. Some of the drum groups could compete with the floats with music stacks on them. However, I recorded a small segment on my still camera (11 seconds) to give some indication of the rhythm. They did every so often switch to a rendition of Queen's "We will, we will rock you."

All the crops I felt were of any use are on my flickr account which can be accessed via this link.

Here are a few selected at random.

Birmingham Wexford Association

Wexford is important to my family law campaigning as it is a place where many of the refugees persecuted by the family courts in England go.

Another drum group - I have heard their rhythms in parts of the city, but don't know their name.

County Offaly Association

Archbishop Illsley's School (in Yardley Constituency)

The bus at the front of the parade. People may wonder why St Patrick looks like the twin of St George (in the St George's festival). Perhaps I should not reveal the truth.

Flags at front of parade

There is a political significance to some of the objects in the parade which is why it is sad that I have had to crop out some of the more significant elements in some photos (because they are covered by people's heads and hats etc). In this case the tricolour is missing.

I shall try to find other online sources of photos and add them to this entry.
The Dog Instructor seems only one photo.
Tim Ellis
The BBC
Birmingham Alabama
Very Quiet???
g4pfk
BRMB

If there are any more please put in the comments and I will add to this page.  posted by John Hemming ¶ 4:00 pm