Blue Jean Queens' parade crown

The Blue Jean County Queen Festival's float in this year's Athboy St. Patrick's Day parade was awarded Most/Creative Youth/Community Group by the parade organising committee at an award ceremony in the Darnley Lodge Hotel, Athboy on Saturday 18th March.

As every year the festival brings over 20 Blue Jean Country Queen contestants to Athboy, for the 2017 parade the organising committee sent a unique batch of Queens, including “The Queen of Hearts” (Aiveen Cully-Dunne), Queen of Diamonds” (Aoife Mooney), a “Queen Bee” (Claire Gough), a “Drag Queen” (Eamon Cassells) and “Queen's Freddie Mercury” (Alan Beirne) to ride along with reigning Queen Dearbhla O'Connor from Louth to wave at the passing crowd.   

The  played by committee members, were: The Queen of Hearts (Aoife Mooney), The Queen Bee (Claire Gough), The Queen of Diamonds (Aiveen Cully-Dunne), a Drag Queen (Eamon Cassells) and Queen's Freddie Mercury (Alan Beirne), who in keeping with the “Snakes and Scholars” theme of this year's parade, brandished a giant snake made completely from denim.

The festival's float was a celebration of the festival's upcoming 30th anniversary and featured an oversized birthday cake. It was from the cake that committee member Ciaran Kearney emerged once the float had reached the center of the town holding aloft a sign reading “#CUatBlueJeans”. Kearney then helped the reigning Queen down from her throne (a vintage tractor) so she could join the rest of the dignitaries on the review stand.

“We wanted to do something a little different because it's our 30th anniversary, we figured we should go big or go home!” said festival chairperson Aiveen Cully-Dunne, who organised the use of her brother's articulated lorry and whose nieces and nephew's joined the float waving Blue Jean Country Queen flags and wishing parade viewers a happy St Patrick's Day as they went along. The Chairperson also thanked the St Patrick's Day Parade committee of Athboy for honoring their float with the award.