*Mick O’Dea with his family at the Ennis St Patrick’s Day parade. Photograph: John O’Neill.
‘WICKED for Good’ was the theme of the St Patrick’s Day parade in Ennis where award-winning artist Mick O’Dea was the Grand Marshal.
Festivities began at 10:15 on St Patrick’s Day Shannon Gospel Choir performing in Abbey Street carpark and Comhaltas at Steele’s Terrace. Clare FM’s Colum McGrath returned as parade MC.
Participants commenced from Clare County Council headquarters on New Road before travelling along Newbridge Road, Club Bridge, Abbey Street carpark, Bank Place and Bindon Street.
Award-winning painter, Mick O’Dea was this year’s grand marshal in Ennis. Born in 1958 to the well-known O’Dea family in Ennis town, he attended CBS Primary School and St Flannan’s College before studying at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and the Winchester School of Art in Barcelona.
With the theme, ‘Ennis – Wicked for Good’, the parade had participants from groups, clubs and societies across the county with prizes dished out for the most creative float, the best interpretation of the theme and the most entertaining entrant.
Mayor of the Ennis Municipal District, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) said there wasn’t a more suitable or deserving Grand Marshal than O’Dea. “Mick has spent his life championing Irish art and culture, and he has never forgotten his roots in Ennis. He has often spoken about the influence of his early years in the family’s pub‑grocery shop on O’Connell Street, where encounters with customers in the 1960s and early 1970s helped shape his interest in people and portraiture. Mick reflects the talent and cultural heritage that define this town”.
A graduate of the National College of Art and Design, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Winchester School of Art, Mick lectured at NCAD for sixteen years and has exhibited widely in Ireland, Europe, the United States and Tanzania.
His awards include the Ireland US Council and Irish Arts Review Portraiture Award and the Royal Ulster Academy Portrait Prize. He became a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1996 and later served as its President. He was elected to Aosdána in 1996 and appointed the first Principal of the RHA School in 2006. In 2015 he was made a Fellow of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland for his work in reviving anatomy teaching for artists.
In 2024 he was elected Vice President of the Trinity College Historical Society. Dublin City University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in 2025. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy and has served on the Board of Governors of the National Gallery of Ireland, chairing its Acquisitions and Exhibition Committee. He also chaired An Post’s Stamp Design Advisory Committee for almost a decade. O’Dea continues to work as a full‑time artist in Dublin, Mayo and abroad.
All photographs by John O’Neill.
