From travelling Ireland in a van to helping organise Prague’s biggest ever St Patrick’s Day parade

Best friends, Ludmila Paleckova (23), Irena Minarikova (21) and Ondra Slansky (37), from Prague in the Czechia, met while learning Irish dancing in Prague and fell in love with Irish culture.

The trio hired a Transit van, saving around €3,000 on hotels and toured Ireland last summer.

And this St Patrick’s weekend, they’ve been busy helping organiser Darragh Price (38) from Portmarnock, North Co Dublin and Irish dance teacher, Tereza Macoszek Jindrová, create Prague’s biggest ever St Patrick’s parade.

“The whole weekend has been full of Irish events,” Mr Slansky told the Irish Independent. “We are Irish dancers, so we closely cooperated with the (CIBCA) Czech-Irish Business and Cultural Association.”

Ms Paleckova previously told how the friends had bonded through “Irish dance and music years ago and it definitely had a part in deciding where to travel…

“We always go to Irish dance Céilís in Prague, in Erlangen in Germany and Basingstoke in the UK, but this was our first time going to a céilí in Ireland, and it was great.”

Businessman Mr Price said of the Prague parade’s growth: “In late 2023, we thought the St Patrick’s parade needed to be restarted after a covid break, so we started working with the CIBCA in Prague, as well as the local embassy. They gave us the full support to get the parade back up and running.

“In autumn last year we got to know Ondra Slansky and friends, who were fanatics for Irish culture and dancing and they were just back from their tour of Ireland in a van.

“We exchanged contacts and with their help and their colleagues at the TJ Irish Dance Academy, we got to work on the 2025 parade and cast the net out across the Czechia to see if there was an appetite to join the parade this year and we got over 1,000 in the parade, with over 50 Irish cultural organisations, dance companies and bands participating.

“The Czechs love the Irish and Ondra and his Czech friends would give any native Irish dancer a run for their money. They’re simply incredible and love Ireland and everything about it.”

The Czech trio and Mr Price, as well as his wife, Martina Price (36) who is the vice president of the CIBCA and the rest of the organising committee, are really spreading the cultures of Irishness in Czechia and next year they are planning to make the event even bigger.

The Prices moved to Prague just before the covid lockdown in March 2020. The couple have two children, Maddox (6) and Penelope (3). Mr Price said: “We’re extremely lucky to live in this city, which is so open to new cultural events.”