Boost business during St Patrick"s week

Dear Sir - At the beginning of the 5th century AD, St Patrick picked from the green grassy slopes of our Hill of Tara a shamrock. This famous and mysterious hill is on our doorsteps and that little shamrock is our national emblem. We, the committee, are now finalising plans to celebrate these events and our patron saint through a community festival that will be staged in over 30 locations around our town over a seven-day period. It is our hope and belief that these festive events and a big street parade can give us as a community boost in these uncertain times. Over the years, our festival has received national press coverage but we, as a town, believe we have never taken full advantage of this. We, the committee, are big believers in self-help and, with this in mind, we approached representatives of our retail sector and others to join forces and in conjunction with the festival to have a massive 20 per cent off sale of all goods and services across the entire town of Navan for some, if not all, of this festive season. To our surprise so far, the response has being very muted and now we seek the public help to make this sale happen and to take advantage of the national profile our community and festival enjoys. Only an hour from Dublin. Let"s all go as customers to our local retailers and service providers, explain to them the advantages of this sale and people power will make it happen. Let us all benefit and take advantage of our people now heading North for shopping by redirecting their GP systems for Navan by offering them bargains here instead. Let"s have full bustling streets, full shops and restaurants, busy shop staff and happy smiling retailers as the their tills rattled to the sound of commerce. All this and more is possible just by one sale called 'Cheaper Than Northern Ireland Prices" for this festive week only. Please Navan, let"s make this happen. Let"s us use self-help not self-pity as our motivation. We, the committee, are willing at any stage to facilitate meetings to make this sale possible but it can only happen when we the public make it happen and retailers say 'Yes". Kind Regards, Paddy Pryle chief organiser, Navan Shamrock Festival, Castleview, Athlumney.