St. Patrick’s Day timeless tradition in Killarney

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This article was published 16/03/2022 (1408 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KILLARNEY — Near the heart of the Turtle Mountains lies the town of Killarney, a community determined to keep its Irish heritage alive through the recognition of St. Patrick’s Day.

This year, the town has prepared a large celebration to stir some life into the community whose roots date back to 1880.

On March 19, residents and families can head down to the appropriately named Shamrock Centre, the large recreation facility that has become a cultural hub for the town.

April Archambault, recreation director for the Shamrock Centre, and Liana Smith, the general manager of the facility, have planned various activities to celebrate the Irish holiday, the majority of which are free to enjoy. They chose March 19 over the traditional March 17 in order for more people to join a weekend event.

Starting at noon, residents can enjoy “twonie bowling,” bouncy castles, green ice cream, a community art project from 1 to 4 p.m., cookie decorating, crafts and games. A public skate will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. with a free stick and puck to follow from 4 to 6 p.m., both of which are available using the full-size indoor hockey rink at the centre.

In conjunction with the free events, the Killarney Library will host a story walk, a curling bonspiel will take place using the indoor curling rink at the centre and the volunteer fire department will offer firetruck rides.

Furthermore, the centre will host an Irish stew and biscuit lunch for $10, a pottery painting session from 1 to 4 p.m. for $10, and the community is especially excited to have local Irish music played from fiddlers coming to town and the McConnell Irish Dancers arriving from Winnipeg for a show at 2 p.m.

After two years of the pandemic curtailing many of the programs and events at the centre, Archambault and Liana were delighted to help arrange the Irish festivities.

“I think people are really excited to have this back in the community again,” Archambault said. “To be under the same roof and take steps to be the way a community should be.”

Liana said after being shut in for the last two years, this year’s festivities are the perfect way to get people out and enjoying life again. It’s a tradition that longtime Killarney resident Murray Taylor can look back on what became a lively affair in the late 1970s.

Taylor explained how there was a big push to have a whole week of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in town during that time, thanks to the efforts of Vern Britton, who once served as the director and manager of the Killarney Chamber of Commerce.

“It started with a fiddling contest, even though none of us knew anything about fiddling,” Taylor said as he laughed.

He recalled all of Broadway Street, Killarney’s busiest thoroughfare, would be shut down; street vendors were brought in and Irish music filled the streets. The community would have costume contests, would crown a St. Patrick’s Queen and served green beer for a time.

Additionally, the town featured a snowball contest and snowmobile races up to Ninette, which brought in people from Saskatchewan and Ontario.

Taylor joked and said he used to cheat in the Ninette race to get an early head start.

“I think what we’re trying to say is back then it was a big community effort,” said Killarney Mayor Merv Tweed.

“They did what they could and added to it. That’s what we’re trying to do now. The demand is there, people are ready to break loose and have fun.”

Joyce Dietrich, a local historian and manager of the J.A.V. David Museum, has lived in Killarney since 1974. She said the celebrations in the late 1970s changed over time from a weeklong event to a scaled-back weekend event to keep up with the times and busy schedules. 

Deputy mayor Janice Smith moved to Killarney in 1996. She said by the time she came to Killarney, the town kept its annual festivities and added a social and seniors lunch serving Irish stew and green beer.

This year, she is excited to see the event catered to people of all ages, rather than it being targeted solely for kids’ amusement, as the case had been in recent years.

For residents of Killarney, the tradition means a lot to pay respect to John Sydney O’Brien, the Irish homesteader who discovered and named Killarney Lake in 1880. Dietrich explained how the area surrounding the site of the future town reminded O’Brien of Ireland based on the lake and rolling hills.

The story goes that O’Brien found a bottle of liquid he brought from Ireland and poured it into the lake, baptizing it as “Killarney,” meaning “church among the blackthorns” in Celtic writing.

Dietrich said many of the establishments in town, including the Blarney Stone Restaurant, Erin Inn and Shamrock Centre, all were named after the number of Irish immigrants who came to Canada following the 19th-century Irish potato famine.

Now in 2022, the 2,490 Killarney residents are continuing that Irish tradition as the town expands and displays shamrock iconography everywhere you look.

“Growth in a rural community is unheard of especially in these times,” Janice said.

Liana, who moved with her family from Calgary in 2010, fell in love with Killarney after seeing nature bloom in the town in the previous year. She told the Sun over the last decade she has watched a multitude of new families settle in Killarney, turning the town from a retirement community into a thriving hub for sports, culture and events.

“What I loved was the beauty, I couldn’t believe there was a lake in the middle of the town,” Liana said.

Tweed has lived in Killarney since 1991 and became mayor last year after winning a byelection. He said he’d like to see the town grow a bit more, in light of the five per cent population increase from the 2016 census data. He believes the 78,000-square-foot Shamrock Centre, which opened in 2009, is a world-class facility in this corner of Westman.

“If you come to Killarney once, you’ll come back. This is probably as good as it gets,” Tweed said.

For Taylor, he is excited to see the next generation of town residents plan future St. Patrick’s Day events in a community he believes has everything to offer for years to come.

“Who would want to live anywhere else?” Taylor said.

» jbernacki@brandonsun.com

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