Big Shoes was her name, and she had no respect for men and women wearing blue - nor had any of her toys writes Lorna Siggins in Galway
"We pay our taxes, what the hell are you doing here?" roared her Bob the Builder, brandishing a hammer at several gardaí on duty in Galway yesterday - to be greeted with no more than a giggle and a grin.
In fact, the Public Order Act was tested on more than a few occasions during the afternoon when Macnas returned after a two-year absence to the city's streets.
Some 500 community volunteers celebrated the art of "playing games" during the two-hour spectacle, part of the Galway Arts Festival.
Risk, Chance, Luck, Skill and Cheat were the parade's main characters, and the "Betty Big Shoes" title was taken from a photograph of a small girl in her mother's high heels. The estimated 50,000 witnesses to the event were asked to do no more than remember the child within and let their imaginations run loose.
Incy-wincy spiders from Galway's Afterschool Together summer programme led the procession from the Town Hall Theatre, followed by a riddler on stilts, a wheel of fortune and a giant frog.
The parade concluded with Betty in a swing under a rainbow, blowing bubbles and tossing tinsel.
After years of being taken for granted, Macnas found itself the object of some ire in its home city when it abandoned the traditional format in 2002 and focused on theatrical productions. However, it received no Arts Council funding for theatre this year - "a blessing in disguise perhaps, because we had to go back to the streets again", its manager, John Ashton, said.