Shamrock’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration was the idea of Glenn Truax, a Shamrock bandmaster.

He envisioned the town of Shamrock capitalizing on its Irish name and producing an annual one-day celebration to draw thousands of visitors to the Irish City.

With the help of the Shamrock Boosters Club, the first St. Patrick’s Day Festival was reeled off in successful fashion in 1938. The initial production attracted a few thousand people and 12 bands. The extravaganza continued to grow until World War II cancelled the annual celebration from 1941 until 1950.

The event was revived in 1950, when the American Legion and the Junior Chamber of Commerce co-sponsored the celebration. Then, the following year, the festival was cancelled due to the Korean conflict. In 1952, the Shamrock Chamber of Commerce took over the task and reactivated the event, which has since been held annually.

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Shamrock has a long history of St. Patrick's Day Pageantry with the Irish Rose and the Lad n' Lassie. Join us this year in participating in the events! Our celebration is a three day event with the kick off banquet which includes the beginning of the Miss Irish Rose Pageant on Friday. The Lad n’ Lassie will wind up the fest on Sunday. Miss Irish Rose is open to high school age girls and the Lad n’ Lassie is for boys ages 0-5 and girls from ages 0 to 8th grade.