Congratulations to everyone for the success of the 2007 arrangement!

The parade in 2007 was the largest to date, thanks to the participation of so many, both local and visitors, and also no doubt as a result of the very good weather.

The committee would like to thank all those who gave their active support to the organisation of the St Patrick’s Day arrangement: the marshals, flag-bearers, musicians, dancers and of course our leprechauns. Our thanks also to those who helped with and who attended our fundraisers. And many thanks to our sponsors for their support.

And thanks of course to all those who marched and provided a colourful spectacle and a fitting celebration of both St Patrick  and our Irishness. We thank also those “Friends of Ireland” for joining us and for  being Irish for the day.

Work is already in progress for the planning of the 2008 St Patrick’s Day arrangement. It is our ambition that celebration of St Patrick’s Day should not be a “static” event and while we will maintain some “traditional” elements we are open to suggestions for improvement.

Since Irish culture is evolving we welcome any new and colourful expressions of it, and since we are expatriates we are also interested in expressions of Irish culture in Norway. Please contact the Committee if you have any suggestions or if you would like to help us with the organisation of the event.

We recognise that Irish culture includes (for those who like hyphens) Gaelic-Irish , Scots-Irish, Anglo-Irish, Chinese-Irish, Polish-Irish , Lithuanian-Irish, Nigerian-Irish not to mention any element where the hyphen is reversed, i.e. Irish-American, Irish-Australian, Irish-Canadian, Irish-British, Irish-Norwegian (and all those we may have missed out).  We are open to include expressions of these elements of Irishness. We are even prepared to consider  Cork culture.

As part of our preparation for the 2008 parade (and also just for the craic) we will organise a couple of fundraisers which hopefully in themselves can also be an annual fixture for the Irish community in Oslo. We will come back with details of these on this site, by e-mail and by placing information in the Dubliner Pub. If you are not on our mailing list (or are not sure) please send your contact information to oslostpats@hotmail.com