Birmingham Local Conservatives have today announced that, should we take control of Birmingham City Council in May’s local elections, we will restore Birmingham's St Patrick's Day parade. The Local Conservatives will work with Birmingham’s Irish community to bring back the City’s famous St Patrick’s Day parade, which was once the third largest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world after Dublin and New York.
Birmingham’s St Patrick’s Day parade has faced a number of challenges over recent years, including the risk of the Parade becoming a target for terror attacks. Safety concerns have forced organisers to postpone celebrations for two years in a row after returning from a 5 year pause which began during the Covid pandemic.
Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives, Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), said:
Birmingham Local Conservatives are committed to seeing the City’s world-famous St Patrick’s Parade return to the streets of Birmingham. The Irish community are a highly valued and historic part of the social fabric of the City, and Birmingham has benefited enormously from their presence. Many Irish people literally helped build the city over the last 100 years. Plenty of other public celebrations and parades occur in the City Centre, and the benefits to either relocating the parade to safe areas, or installing additional safety infrastructure to ensure the parade can return to Birmingham, would be well worth the investment.
Shadow Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Cllr Tim Huxtable (Con, Hall Green South), said:
The Irish community quite literally helped to build Birmingham, and the St Patrick’s Day parade was, rightly so, a central part of the Birmingham public calendar for an entire generation. Birmingham Local Conservatives are, therefore, determined to see the parade return and bring the city together to celebrate the important contributions to our communities and local culture made by those brummies of Irish heritage. The council should provide every support possible, and if Birmingham Local Conservatives take control of the City Council in May’s local elections, we’ll work with the Birmingham Irish Association and other stakeholders, to ensure 2027 sees the return of the world famous Birmingham St Patrick’s Day parade
