The Wild Geese Soar on "The Great Day" 2003

Buy a t-shirt of sweatship or other item with this St. Patrick's Day 2003 commemorative graphic here.

DUBLIN — Nineteen-year-old singing sensation Samantha Mumba was the Grand Marshall of the 2003 Parade in Dublin. The weather was sunny, not typical of the occasion in other years, bringing out a crowd estimated to be half a million strong, reported to be the largest ever. The parade was large as well, with close to 4000 marchers. Several local parades around the island were canceled due to huge increases in insurance cost. Some of those canceled included Ennis, Co Clare, Buttevant, Co. Cork, and Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick

BELFAST — There was no parade in Belfast this years, as politics intruded in the celebrations in the six counties, as it seems to do into nearly every aspect of life there. Instead the city center was filled with several thousands revelers for an open-air concert at City Hall featuring Six, Malachi Cush and Sinéad Quinn. Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Alex Maskey encouraged the entire city to take part in the celebration saying "Respect and tolerance for what is a diverse community has to be the hallmark of everything we do here."

WGT photo by Gerry Regan The "Half-Mad" McLaughlins of Donegal and Brooklyn take in the 2003 New York Parade.

NEW YORK — This year the granddaddy of all St. Patrick's Day Parades in New York enjoyed the mildest weather in many years, with the temperature hovering around the 70 mark. With Spring fever in the air the crowds were large and boisterous. In one note of silliness from the parade that can only be put down as some sort of "war hysteria" (though we weren't quite at war yet). The Monaghan Association didn't carry their usual banner in the parade. This after someone pointed out that the outline of Monaghan County on the banner looked a lot like the outline of Iraq. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but this is just about stranger than anything. Those big letters spelling out MONAGHAN surely would have tipped off most folks, one would think. Or is there a Managhan somewhere in Iraq?

LIMERICK — The parade in Limerick was a part of their newly inaugurated St. Patrick's Day Spring Festival. Bright sunny weather helped the turnout as several thousand spectators. Limerick Mayor John Cronin called it the most colorful in years. The city hosted a "French Market" over the weekend and it was said to be hugely successful. It would be interesting to know how such a market would have faired in an American city during a time when our Congress feels compelled to change the name of French Fries on their cafeteria menu.

LONDON — London officially celebrated St. Patrick's Day for the 2nd time under Mayor Ken Livingstone (derided by the Tories as "Red Ken" when they ruled). Once again a good crowd of up to 30,000 turned out for the parade and surely making many of the capitalists\ downtown shopowners forget the "Red Ken" bit for a day. Parade organizer Judith Woodward admitted they hadn't reached their goal of rivaling the New York parade yet (a rather lofty ambition given New York's 150 thousand marchers and 2 million spectators), but they were working on it.

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND — Keiron Punch reporting … Wearing forty shades of green, more than 150,000 people thronged the streets of Birmingham to watch the largest Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Britain. Pipe Bands from Ireland received a warm reception from the crowds, yet the biggest ovation was given to 20 New York Firefighters who came to thank the people of the West Midlands for their generous support in the aftermath of September 11th. As Guests of Honour, they marched behind their colleagues from the West Midlands Fire Service Band as the Parade wound its way from the Irish Centre in Digbeth to Centenary Square. There, the festivities continued with a free concert held jointly to celebrate Birmingham's hosting of the IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships and Saint Patrick's Day. One of the many highlights of the concert occured when tens of thousands of people spontaneously serenaded the New York Firefighters with a stirring rendition of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling".

SOUTH KOREA — Surely an organization that has to bring a smile to the face of every person with any Irish roots is the IAK, Irish Association of Korea in Seoul. The group has been around for 9 years now and this year their Guinness Irish Festival included their third annual parade on the 16th. But that was not their only event, far from it. On Satuday March 8th they had a Gaelic Athletic Day that included two Gaelic Rules football

Photo courtesy of the Irish Assoication of Korea The lads mix it up in the first ever hurling match in Seoul.

games the first game of hurling ever played in Korea. The final was Seoul Rebels 3-7 beating the Seoul Faithful 2-5. That night there was a Charity Hoolie at "O'Kims." (What else in Korea?) During the week there were a number of one act Yeats plays put on at various locations around town and on Saturday night, the 15th, a St. Patrick's Charity Ball was held at the Hilton. The Korean weather chipped in with a "soft day" of rain for the parade on the 16th. And the week culminated on the night of the 17th with a performance of the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center. Lets lift a glass to the Gaels of Korea for all their efforts to keep their Irish spirit alive so far from home. You can visit the IAK website here.

AUSTRALIA — Australia, is one of the most Irish countries in the world outside of the actual place, so St. Patrick's day is a big event there every year. The early morning in Sydney was rainy but the sun came out in time for Irish President, Mary McAleese, to enjoy the parade with the rest of the revelers. One of the highlights of the parade was the Tipperary Association float with a "Ned Kelly" impersonator firing his gun at intervals.

FRANCE — The biggest St. Patrick's Day related celebration in France, "Nuit Celtique," was on Saturday night March 15th. It was held in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, for the second consecutive year. For 2003, it was estimated that 70,000 would attend. More than 100 Irish, Scottish, Gaelic and Breton signers, dancers and musicians will performed on four stages.

MONTSERRAT — This island celebrates the great day for two reasons. One is that many of the islands early European settlers were Irish, though often forced into the trip by a certain O. Cromwell in the mid-1600s. The second event that is celebrated is a slave rebellion on the date in 1768. It is thought that the slaves picked that date because the slave-owners, many by them being the descendants of those early Irish - who often came as slaves themselves - would likely be a bit tipsy that day and slow to react. It proved not to be the case, the rebellion was put down, but today both St. Patrick and the revolt are celebrated by the islanders with a week long celebration. This year as usual it the islanders celebrated all week with lectures, poetry reading, exhibits, boat tours around the island, a Freedom Hike, a St. Patrick's Day dinner, and culminating with a Slave Feast and Heritage Day on the 17th.

AROUND THE UNITED STATES …

WGT photo by Tom Madigan Troop 800 poses for a group shot b before the Center Moriches march.

CENTER MORICHES, NY — WGT's Tom Madigan participated in the first, annual St. Patrick's day parade in Center Moriches, NY. He accompanied his son, Patrick, as he marched with his fellow Boy Scouts, members of Troop 800, named in honor of the tragic flight of the same name. The boys strode proudly down Main St. towards St. John the Evangelist with Patrick proudly bearing the Tricolor and 2 fellow scouts carrying the Stars and Stripes and the Boy Scouts Standard. Amid the revelry and the green, there was much Irish pride with the sun shining on all. All in all, it was a glorious day for the Irish!

ATLANTA — This years Atlanta parade had 200 units. That included at least 24 major floats, bands of every kind, military units, pipes & drums, hundreds of children, Irish dancers, clowns, high tech firefighting equipment, police units, drill teams, dogs, horses, and antique cars. A group of firemen from Ireland also marched in the parade.

Tom Henehan with his supply of beads at one of the parades in New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS, LA — report by Tom Henehan. .... There are at least four Irish groups parading each year in New Orleans: Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Club: Founded 1947, based in the city's original Irish neighborhood, the Irish Channel, a waterfront area uptown; Jim Monaghan's French Quarter Parade, named for the recently deceased popular owner of several French Quarter bars/pubs including Molly's & Molly's at the Market; Metairie Irish Parade, always held on Sunday, the day after Irish Channel parade; and the Downtown Irish Club parade, based in the opposite end of town from the Irish Channel, and held on the evening of March 17. True to the Mardi Gras spirit of New Orleans these parades include the tossing of things from the floats to the crowd. The traditional beads are supplemented with the vegetables common to a corned beef meal. Potatoes and carrots posed few problems, but the heads of cabbage were doing damage to some shop windows along the route. So this year, a city ordinance was passed to prohibiting throwing of cabbages; now they must be *handed* to the recipients. This is the same rule adopted 10-15 years ago for the coconuts distributed by the Zulu parade on Mardi Gras Day. On Saturday, I saw guys dropping cabbages from the upper level of double-decker floats - hardly "handing" them to spectators, but at least not shotputting them through windows. No serious injuries were reported.

An Historical Account of the Long Green Line The Irish have been parading in mid-March in Old New York for well over 225 years. Over the years "a long green line" of Irish Americans has moved along the Empire City's main thoroughfares in generally good order, under all types of conditions, weather-wise and otherwise, overcoming all kinds of obstacles, internal and external, somehow sticking together to mark the Saint's Day and keep the tradition alive. Many of us who consider the parade a wonderful event and regard the Big Apple's St. Patrick's Day Parade as "our thing -- our Irish-American thing," have long felt that the unique, heroic accomplishments of New York's Irish in annually putting on the world's largest and greatest parade deserved to be put on the written record, chronicled in book form. All praise to John T. Ridge of Brooklyn, because the story of the "Big Hibernian Parade" is now on record. Ridge's new book, "The St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York," was a long time in coming and all reports are that I was well worth waiting for. The 212-page book traces the parade form 1762 to 1987, and is divided into six chapters: 1) The Early Years: 1762-1850; 2) The Exiles Come Together 1851-1875; 3) Troubled Times, 1876-1899; 4) The Age of Irish Nationalism, 1900-1922; 5) Chairman (Roderick) Kennedy's Parade, 1923-1936; 6) The Modern Parade, 1936-1987. The author gives a capsulated history of each year's parade from 151 to date, and along the way, frequently quotes form contemporary newspaper accounts to set the parade scene and to provide information on the grand marshal, the marchers, and the current parade committee, and key parade figures. Ridge deals with the troubled times and many problems the parade faced over the years. He notes that the Irish marched during tempestuous and troubled times, during the famine days, the Mollie Maguire persecutions, the Know Nothing rampages and Orangeism heyday. Ridge maintains that the parade "has not been a passive witness of the history of the Irish in the United States or in Ireland, "but on the contrary," notes that the contemporary concerns of the Irish and the Irish-American political, social, cultural and even economic life appear in the parade" and that many causes that tripped Ireland from time to time were well reflected in the parade. The author cites ample evidence that it as not been "a pleasant walk in the sun" for the parade and its marchers. They nave endured physical attack, a wickedly hostile press, animosity caused by the growth of Irish power in New York City's affairs, factionalism within the parade itself, denunciation by prominent clergymen, and anguished complaints of interfering with the business life of the city. Author Ridge's factual account of what the parade has gone through and survived in it's "earlier" days has helped restore any wavering faith and faltering optimism in the future of the parade. Ridge's historical account of my favorite parade gives me hope that that just as the parades of the past found ways and the wisdom to defend and perpetuate itself, despite the siren song of those who would change its inherent design, so, to, will the leaders and lovers of today's parade be able to keep "our Irish-American thing" a good-spirited, ear-and-eye pleasing annual celebration and reunion of Irish and Irish-Americans. Through a special arrangement with the author, you can now purchase this book via WGT, along with "Erin's Sons in America," Ridge's book on the early history of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians in American, both out of print for many years. You can obtain either for $18, or both for just $34. Click here: Amazon.com tip page. At the end of the process, be sure to click on the "Let them know you've given" option so we can get your address and product details. To pay by check (allow a week for the check to clear), mail your payment, made out to GAR Media, to GAR Media, 38-11 Ditmars Blvd., #193, Astoria NY 11105-1803. Author Ridge can be especially proud of the more than 50 pictures in the book. I note that all but two of the 50-plus illustrations are produced here for the first time. The cover illustration depicts beplumed Hibernians on horseback making the turn around the statue of George Washington in Union Square during the 1892 St. Patrick's Day Parade. The author, a first-generation Irish-American, is the son of Mark Ridge, of Carna, Co. Galway, and Margaret Walsh Ridge of Ballinelea, Co. Longford. He resides with his wife, Sheila Dwyer Ridge, and their two children, Mairead and Kiernan, in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn. -- John Concannon (written circa 1988)

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