You can't beat a St Patrick's Day parade for some wholesome craic and randomness. Case in point: the number of Enoch Burke floats that popped up around the country today.
Much craic was had at the many St Patrick's Day parades around the world today but it will be hard to top a chance encounter between members of An Garda Siochana and a GAA legend on Fifth Avenue in New York that was luckily filmed.
The New York St Patrick's Day parade route covers more than thirty blocks in uptown and midtown Manhattan.
It's a huge event for the Irish in America, and this year, a large numbers of guards travelled to New York to march, as they do every year.
Along the way today, a number of the guards realised that Dublin GAA legend Jason Sherlock was observing the parade: just a regular bystander on the street.
Jayo politely shook a few hands as they passed.
There were some bemused reaction from the gardaí, including two who stopped for a selfie.
Eventually a group of guards arrive on the scene who are so smitten by the sight of Jayo at the parade that they lifted Sherlock over the barrier and into the parade.
New York St Patrick's Day Parade: Guards Spot Jayo
Our members are never off duty!
An Garda Síochána’s contingent that travelled to NYC to proudly take part in today’s parade scoped out well known @officialgaa star, @boomjayo in the crowd.
He’s now been taken in for questioning on his crimes against football!#StPatricksDay pic.twitter.com/wehWQrklC9— Garda Info (@gardainfo) March 17, 2023
It's an all-time great St Patrick's Day parade moment.
We think the American watching this all happen off camera summed up best at the end:
"I've never seen that. I've been coming to the parade for a long time, and I've never seen that. That was awesome."
We also enjoyed the contribution from a member of the Garda Press Office, who when asked in the replies by a man named Brendan if the attending guards were on 'premium payments' to attend the parade, had this to say:
Hi Brendan, this trip which is an important and long-standing tradition between us and our US counterparts is all voluntary, self-funded and taken as annual leave. We hope you’ve had a nice St Patrick’s Day today.
