Laughin Leprechaun Rally July 06

HOT PRESS.OUR NEXT LAUGHIN LEPRECHAUN RALLY WILL BE 1st-3rd MAY 2009..FOR DETAILS CALL OR EMAIL US. SOON..

LAUGHIN LEPRECHAUN RALLY JULY 06

Well, after a year of extended travel to all parts of the country to hold meetings, near nervous breakdowns, panic attacks, and even the odd prayer thrown in, it’s all over. We held our first Laughin’ Leprechaun Rally.

Out of the 5 active members in Centre 2, there was little experience of hosting a VSOC rally, but bucket loads of enthusiasm! We had all attended rallies in the UK and had seen how well these rallies had been organised. We knew that the expectations would be high. We have close links with a few of the centres in the UK so tapping into their knowledge base was easy and we were glad of the help.

The tasks associated with the major parts of the rally were divvied up amongst the five of us and in the end we all got stuck into each other’s areas to lend a hand. It made the work seem almost easy!

The first few people started to arrive on Tuesday night and from then on there was a constant thunder of bikes rumbling to Arklow from Dublin, Dun Laoghaire and Rosslare.

The first Centres in were 6 and 8. Phil, Joy, Dave, Gaz and all the crew pitched in with the setting up of the site and laying out the pitches. Leahanne, Roger, Pete, Stacey and Laura, all helped with the setting up of the rally packs.

There were a few nervous hours for Centre 2 as Planet Sound and the Chuck wagon got caught in traffic jams and flat tyres! Once they had shown up, that was it….we could relax a little.

We don’t think the locals knew what was happening or what to expect. That was soon sorted when people went into the town and got talking to them, they realised what a nice bunch of folk had come to their town to party. (The traders in the town also have extended a huge thanks for the boost to their coffers!)

Over all the weather wasn’t the worst “for Ireland that is” with Saturday being the wettest, but that didn’t stop people having their fun. The local band on Friday night, Trial By Fire, kicked it off and got people in the Party mode. But that was only a warm up for the Saturday night. Acoustics, an Irish Trad Rock Band really did rock the marquee till almost three in the morning. And not to forget our own Steve Clarks unforgettable drumming skills on the Bongo’s that had the band trying to keep up with him. (A lot of people have asked for details of the band so we will post contact numbers and email address on our website).

All photos from the rally are now available to view below

What can we say..? We had nervous expectations on how many people would come over for the Rally and thanks to all you folk we exceeded them. The count was 300 plus, a fantastic turn out.

In general the feedback is that everyone enjoyed the rally and had a good time. We hope we can welcome everyone back again in the future for the next Laughin’ Leprechaun Rally.

The members of Centre 2 would like to extend a massive thank you to all the people that helped us out doing various tasks throughout the weekend that made our first Rally a success. A special thank you goes to Centre’s 6 & 8 for all their hard work and coming over a few days early to help us get set up. Thanks so much Guys.

Also we would like to thank Arklow Rugby Club for the use of their facilities for the Rally.

And last but not least we would like to thank everybody who attended the Rally without whom it would not have been a success.

Hope we will all see each other again sooner rather than later

Slan go Foil

Brian, Ade, Jeff, Tommy & Steve.