For most area marching bands, the end of football season means the end of marching band.

Not so for the Youngsville Marching Eagles, whose season extended all the way through St. Patrick’s Day and a trip to Dublin, Ireland, to perform in the 2024 St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Youngsville was one of 14 marching bands to perform and the only one from Pennsylvania. Youngsville’s student musicians began practicing after returning from Christmas vacation twice a week to get ready for the Ireland trip.

The payoff was a five-day trip in which the band saw some of Ireland’s most famous sites, taught the mayor of Dublin to play the drums, and performed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in front of some 700,000 people and winning Best Youth Band at the 52nd International Band Competition with bands from the United States, Europe and Ireland.

It’s an experience the band’s members and leaders will never forget – and an honor the band and the Youngsville community should be proud to have achieved.