The Paddy's Day Parade in Swords is always a huge occasion. We love working on it every year.
This year was our 4th year working on the St. Patrick's Day parade in Swords for Fingal County Council. We've been involved since the first one and have seen it grow and improve year on year since.
The Events Unit in the County Council are extremely active and they put a lot of effort into the parade each year.
The number of participants in the parade grows each year along with the numbers lining the street to enjoy it.
We provide a number of members of the Senior Safety Team for the Parade. Our staff are each in charge of particular zones, ensuring all staff are working together to ensure that the 20,000+ people are safe and can enjoy the parade.
This one is a big operation that involves multiple agencies and a lot of planning and management. We enjoy projects of this size.
We especially enjoy working with Fingal County Council on these large projects as they have great people who want to run great events for the people in Fingal.
We enjoy being a small part of what they do.
With over 2,000 participants along with 30+ vehicles, all being watched by 20,000 plus people lining the streets in Swords, the sheer scale of this event presents some challenges.
We break the route down into multiple zones and then put management plans and staff in place in each zone. Each has its own challenges and each needs its own safety management team.
With full road closures in place, some of the challenge is in closing them at the right times so that the event is safe and that the residents are discommoded as little as possible.
'Once again Cuckoo provided a number of our Senior Safety personnel for the parade in Swords. With over 20,000 people to keep safe, plus all the participants, it's vital for us that we have experienced and reliable eyes on the ground to ensure all runs right.
The Cuckoo team integrates seamlessly with us at this stage and it's that level of familairity and shared understanding that helps us host large events safely in the Fingal area.
It's hard to imagine doing these events without having Cuckoo there with us.'