Let Sionnan have her say this St Patrick's Day.
When this is all over, there is one place we should all be and that is Sean’s Bar down by the River Shannon in Athlone.
A bar over a thousand years old should know a thing or two about tradition and pouring pints.
Athlone is the centre of the universe if you look at the island on a map that geographically seems to stand out at you when you see it centrally located between Mainland Europe and the Americas.
The Shannon divides the town of Athlone but maybe the river can unite us too.
The river goddess which gives her name to Ireland's largest waterway had been mostly ignored until a beautiful statue was proposed that celebrated the River gods introduced to Dublin during colonial times yet seemed to ignore Athlone's very own river god.
Standing tall over the people of Athlone whenever the statue is unveiled, the river god is somewhat of an insult on the actual river goddess that flows under the bridge that divides the town between Leinster and Connaught.
Let’s have a Saint Patrick’s Day to remember even if it is a month or year late but let’s pull out all the stops and give Sionnan the final say.
Let’s invite our neighbours from the European People’s Festival, back to Athlone.
Let’s fill the town with Americans and Europeans and celebrities and dignitaries.
Let’s dye the water green and invite the mayors of Chicago and New York to do it this year.
Let's invite Michael Flatley to do another Riverdance. Let's invite Greenpeace and launch a greener more peaceful world from the banks of the Shannon.
Let’s re-act the Siege of Athlone of 1961, let’s hold another triAthlone in the morning and then dye the water green like they have done every Saint Patrick’s Day in Chicago for over 50 years.
Including this crazy crazy year.
The dye used is non-toxic but the visual is incredible. Let’s start a Green New Deal and invite Mark Ruffalo to kick start the parade off. The Hulk star is probably feeling like Thanos kicked his ass.
Let the Avengers Assemble in Athlone, there are thousands to avenge and remember.
Let's invite Luke Skywalker to travel to the mainland from Skellig Michael where celebrities can mingle with locals like they are Michael Jackson living it up in Moate.
Money and resources would have to be pumped in but after a month locked inside our homes. I am sure Shannon Airport would welcome any initiative that attracted people to our shores and where Guinness could set some records of their own.
Wouldn’t it be worth it, to unite us all?
Let’s call it Sionnan’s Festival, in the town of Athlone.
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