Coronavirus: Birmingham St Patrick's Day parade cancelled

The sponsors said they want to help celebrate Irish heritage and the culture of Birmingham

Birmingham's St Patrick's Day parade and festival has been postponed amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The event, which started in 1952, attracts more than 100,000 visitors and claims to be the third largest of its kind in the world.

Festival chair Peter Connolly said it was an "unprecedented situation" but it would return later in the year.

Just last month, the event was saved from cancellation when new sponsors came forward.

'Belated celebration'

This year's theme was to be The Irish Quarter, named after the area of the city where the parade takes place.

Mr Connolly said: "We are devastated to share this news with you, however, we are committed to providing our city with a belated St Patrick's celebration that we can all be proud of later in the year.

He said organisers were "working through the ramifications" and would be back with an announcement "very soon".

"When you talk to the people that are actually going to be attending, they don't feel that it would be safe and so we have to take that on board," he said.

Birmingham City Council stopped financially supporting the event in 2014, citing cuts by central government.

Scanlon School of Irish Dancing was to have a float at the event

Companies Chasetown Civil Engineers and Court Collaboration joined forces earlier this year to fund it after former sponsor Kiely Bros Ltd was unable to continue.

Ciaran Healy, director at The Old Crown pub in the city, which had been helping with fundraising efforts, said they were now waiting on instructions from the council and West Midlands Police.

Carole Scanlon, principal teacher of the Scanlon School of Irish Dancing, was set to have a float at the parade to mark the school's 50th anniversary, with 70 dancers taking part.

She said "everything was ready to go", but the health implications had to be "respected".

"We will probably still celebrate in a little corner, the Irish won't be beaten too quickly," she added.

Ms Scanlon said "everything was ready', but health implications had to be "respected"

"I have always supported everything in Birmingham and if they do decide to go ahead with it later, of course we will be there, but if it is not on this weekend, it is not the same thing."

Rachel O'Connor, manager of the Kerryman pub in Digbeth, said it was a "big loss" in a financial terms but everyone had to "kept safe".

"Let's hope it all doesn't go on too long because it's a big impact for everyone," she added.

Gary McDonnell said the postponement will lead to "losses"

Gary McDonnell, of Hennessey's Bar in Digbeth, said the pub will still have bands performing on Sunday and that people will attend.

"There is definitely going to be some losses because a lot of the bars have already purchased the stock," he said.

"We are not the only business that has got this problem at the moment so we've just got to carry on."

The St Patrick's Day committee was meeting on Friday to discuss the postponement in further detail.