Stealing a march

Transition Times: 800 students will be at the heart of Dublin's huge St Patrick's Day parade. Gráinne Faller finds out how they have been preparing for Friday's big event.

The stars are out in force. As they strut down the red carpet, the bling factor is off the scale. They are posing for the cameras, dancing for the crowds and shooting green looks of jealousy at the young pretenders to their crowns. This is all about them, and they are loving it.

This is not Oscars night, though. It's a chilly spring morning at the Digital Hub, in Dublin. A large, warehouse-like hall is the rehearsal space for the transition-year students of St Joseph's Secondary School, on Stanhope Street in Dublin 7.

Dressed in orange and yellow, with starry yellow skullcaps and a large star around each girl's waist, they are singing, dancing and posing like true divas while flouncing in formation around the hall. The stars are just a small part of what will be the largest pageant in Dublin's St Patrick's Day parade, on Friday.

The Stanhope Street girls are among 800 students taking part in Brighter Futures, a festival arts-education initiative in which transition-year students devise, plan and perform a set piece within the parade.

The project started last September, when the Brighter Futures team, co-ordinated by Norma Leen, asked students what theme they would like to use for their part in the parade. "Wanting what you can't have" was a common suggestion. "Wishes" - particularly being careful what you wish for - was another thread that seemed to run through students' ideas. Eventually it was decided to go with "wishful thinking", which each school interpreted in its own way.

The result is a grand fantasy of mermaids, the wisher men who want to catch them, beauty, fame, power, riches and the trouble they can bring. The parade will involve students, like those in Stanhope Street, in grand costumes, as well as huge models and floats, including the Love Submarine.

One of the bigger pieces will be a huge mermaid puppet that will be animated by 10 students. Matt Guinnane supervises the making of the larger puppets and floats. "The key is to keep the mermaid model light. She has to be skinny and flexible, because she's going to have to limbo under the Luas lines," he says.

Back in the rehearsal hall, Stanhope Street students Olivia Logue and Crystal Powell have just finished rehearsing for the parade, and, still wearing their star costumes, they explain how their section of the parade came about.

"Really early on in the year, the Brighter Futures people came out to the school, and we did a brainstorm on the theme of wishful thinking," says Olivia. "We just thought of how lots of people want to be famous, and the stars were what we came up with." It was a daunting prospect at first. "When they told us that we were going to make our own costumes, I didn't think that we'd be able to do it at all," says Olivia, laughing.

The Brighter Futures team spent a lot of time going around the schools involved; they also maintained contact through student representatives who met the team every Wednesday. Crystal Powell was one of Stanhope Street's representatives. "I'd go to the meetings and bring the information back to the school," she says.

There was a huge amount to be done, from singing and dancing training to making the costumes. "There's a lot of work involved," says Olivia. "We made the costumes, and we've had to paint them with a gloss, in case it rains," says Crystal. "Knowing my luck, it'll definitely rain," Olivia chips in.

For the Brighter Futures team, the rain is the least of their worries. Time is of the essence, and everything requires planning. Even an apparently straightforward task such as dividing art materials between schools had to be carefully done. "There are a lot of organisational things that you wouldn't think about," says Muirne Bloomer, artistic director of the pageant. "Even things like what you need to ask a school - making sure a gym hall is free, for example."

She has been delighted with the way the elements of the project have come together. "It's wonderful to see how people can go beyond themselves. Shy students can really start to blossom when working on something like this."

She believes students must remain central to the planning and creation of the pageant. "We have to be very strong on the fact that students have to feel an ownership of this. It has really come across that students feel they have a message to bring. They believe that the world pays a price for wishing for perfection."

Although the team spends time in the schools, students come to the Digital Hub to finish off their work. Some even do their work experience there. Marina Pogulyaeva, from Kazakhstan, is spending a year studying with transition-year students at Notre Dame des Missions school in Churchtown, Co Dublin. Work experience for Brighter Futures has given her a novel introduction to St Patrick's Day. "I'm enjoying it," she says. "It's interesting, something different. I've never celebrated St Patrick's Day before."

She is making part of a costume with Niamh Harman from Firhouse Community College, who is also on work experience. Niamh says: "We've spent time in the office and at the school meetings, as well as helping to put costumes together. I never really thought about how much effort goes into something like this."

A feature of this year's Brighter Futures programme is a documentation project that aims to chart the course of the students' work. A number of students, led by Greg O'Brien, are hoping to have a DVD and a small exhibition at the end of the project, with a screening of the documentary at Millennium House, the location of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children.

The Brighter Futures team is delighted that the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, is supporting the venture both financially and by using the project to make young people aware of their rights and the work her office does in protecting them. The fact that the students are so central to the creation of what will be seen on St Patrick's Day is a major reason why the office wanted to get involved.

"Hearing young people's voices and respecting young people's opinions is central to the work of our office," says Logan. "We got involved with the Brighter Futures project because it does both in a really exciting way."

As the day approaches, of course, the students - satisfied that their message will be seen and heard at the parade - are concentrating more on their performances and wishing the rain away. The girls at Stanhope Street are beginning to feel pre-parade jitters. "It'll be a bit nerve-racking on the day," says Olivia. "I'm kind of dreading everyone coming out to see us," agrees Crystal. "I love all this dancing, singing and acting, though. It's definitely worth all the work."

Where to go and what to do if you're in Dublin for this year's St Patrick's Day parade

St Patrick's Festival begins in Dublin today and continues until Sunday. All sorts of events are taking place; some run right through the festival, so you'll have a couple of opportunities to catch them.

GE Money Oíche (right) is a performance by an Argentinian and Spanish group called Grupo Puja. Eight performers attach themselves to a globe that is, in turn, attached to a crane. It's a mixture of drumming, music, choreography and acrobatics. They will be launching the festival as darkness falls tonight.

You can see GE Money Oíche at 7.30pm today, tomorrow and Saturday, in Smithfield. You need a free ticket, which you can get from the festival information booth, on South King Street, Dublin 2, and Dublin Tourism, on Suffolk Street and O'Connell Street.

Donkeys at Docklands is a quirky exhibition of life-sized photographs of donkeys. Taken by Oliviero Toscani, who is most famous for taking controversial photographs for Benetton in the 1990s, the animals have apparently been photographed like supermodels. Bring along a photo of Gisele, to see if you can spot the difference. The exhibition, at Custom House Quay, is open from 10am to 6pm until Sunday.

The funfair (right) on Merrion Square opens at 6pm tomorrow. Then it's open each day of the festival from noon until 11pm. It includes a ferris wheel and dodgems.

The carnival atmosphere is coming to South King Street and Henry Street on Saturday, with the bands, acrobats and street theatre companies performing during the afternoon.

The Denny Treasure Hunt is also happening on Saturday, starting at 10am at City Hall, on Dame Street. A cross between a quiz and a scavenger hunt, it will have people haring all over the city. The quickest team (of up to four people) with all the correct answers wins a weekend away (as does the best-dressed team); there are also spot prizes throughout the morning.

All of this is just a taster. For more information, visit www.stpatricksfestival.ie.