Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with these words as
you lift your glass to friends and family:
May the road rise up to meet you
And may the wind always be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the raindrops fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the small of his hand. |
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A GREAT DAY FOR
THE IRISH
There may always be an
Ireland, and beyond that lovely prospect, always hundreds
of parades around the world to celebrate March 17th.
But from 11:00 a.m. until
about 3:00 p.m. on an island called Manhattan, a green
stripe runs down the middle of Fifth Avenue from 44th
to 86th Street for The St. Patrick’s Day Parade,
one of New York City’s greatest traditions.
On St. Patrick’s
Day a kind of wonderful delirium takes over Gotham.
Everyone is Irish!
The annual procession
marches up Fifth Avenue, past St. Patrick’s Cathedral
at 50th Street, all the way up past the Metropolitan
Museum of Art at 83rd Street.
New York City’s
St. Patrick’s Day parade began before there was
even a United States of America; the first march in
Manhattan was held on March 17, 1762, when Irishmen
from Ireland’s Revolutionary War brought the tradition
here.
Military units continued
to march each year until after the War of 1812, when
local Irish fraternal and beneficial societies began
sponsoring the event.
In those days, the parade
was quite small, marching from local Irish meeting halls
to Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Lower Manhattan
on Mott & Prince Streets.
By 1851, the groups had
banded together, nominating a Grand Marshall and increasing
the size of the parade.
This was when the Irish
69th Regiment (now the 165th Infantry) became the lead
marchers, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians became
the official sponsor.
We love St. Patrick’s
Day.
It’s when the “Irishrey”
of New York come out in full celebration. Look into
the faces of the uniformed services, especially the
NYC Firefighters, and you will understand it immediately.
We also like that St.
Patrick’s Day Parade remains true to its roots
by not allowing floats, automobiles and other commercial
overkill.
Marching, great bands,
and bagpipes fill the air as more than 150,000 people
from all over the country and the world celebrate in
New York.
This year 2016 we will
be on the road Thursday, March 17.
We gathered the clan this
past Sunday and ate the traditional dinner until our
hands got tired, loving every second of it.
Then we pulled out the
family album, laughed until we choked a couple of times,
and ate some more!
HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY
2016!
Geoffrey
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