Shrewsbury set for regiment homecoming parade
Soldiers from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment will today take part in a homecoming parade through the streets of Shrewsbury.
After marching through Market Drayton yesterday morning, the regiment will leave Shrewsbury Castle at 10am this morning marching through the town centre along Dogpole and down Wyle Cop and into Abbey Foregate.
A special service will then take place at Shrewsbury Abbey from 11am.
The regiment, based at Tern Hill barracks near Market Drayton, returned to Shropshire last week following a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, it is expected about 300 soldiers and officers will take part in the parade today.
Shropshire Council chairman, Malcolm Pate, said he hoped hundreds of people would line the streets to watch the parade and pass on their best wishes.
“These soldiers and officers have been serving their country for six months in very difficult and dangerous circumstances thousands of miles from home,” Councillor Pate said. “I think it’s extremely important that the people of Shropshire turn out in good numbers to welcome them home, and I’m sure the parade will be a wonderful and poignant occasion for all concerned.”
Commanding officer, Lt Col Colin Weir MBE, said: “We have always been made to feel welcome by the people of Shropshire and this is now being reinforced by the invitation of Shropshire Council to parade through the streets of Shrewsbury. We are honoured to have been asked, and after six months in Afghanistan, the parade is a fitting finale to what has been a gruelling operational deployment.”
There will be rolling closures on the town centre roads affected by the parade to keep any disruption to traffic at a minimum. Abbey Foregate will be closed from about 12pm to 12.30pm.
