Bandon wins battle of the little people

The West Cork town of Bandon was awash with little people on St Patrick’s Day – not that it was just children that turned out. Instead 1,263 people turned out dressed as leprechauns making Main Street in Bandon a sea of ‘little people’.

People from all over Cork descended on Bandon last Saturday to help secure the town a Guinness World Record by wearing green hats and waistcoats, red beards, brogues and shillelaghs!

The town successfully fought a leprechaun battle with the town of Glenties in Donegal to capture the Guinness World Record for the most leprechauns in one place.

From babies to grandparents and even dogs, everybody in Bandon was dressed as mythical Irish fairies. There were reports of a 83 year old and an 86 year old dressing up for the event!

The previous record was 414 leprechauns which was actually set last year by a South African school with an Irish principal. The old record was beaten nearly an hour before the main event with around 1,000 leprechauns present at that time.

Participants were required to wear a specific uniform of green top hat, beard, green waistcoat or frock coat, black, green or red trousers, and appropriate footwear.

To make their record official organisers of the Bandon event said they will now submit a certified attendance document to the Guinness Book of Records.