vip in the city

Luck o’ the Irish

Yesterday’s storm with its 5 inches of snow wiped away the green stripe traditionally painted along Fifth Avenue for the St. Patrick’s Day parade — the oldest and most popular parade in New York City.

According to the information website, the city’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade was organized in 1762 by Irish soldiers serving in the British army. The early marchers would form up at their parish churches or their organizations’ meeting places and march to the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral — the oldest Roman Catholic church building in the city, still at Mott and Prince Streets. As the City and the Cathedral moved uptown so did the parade.

Anticipated attendance hovers around 2 million, converting the streets uptown into a sea of green, white and orange, as the echo of endless bagpipes played through the air. Spectators lined the streets tricked out in green hats, green boas, flashing green necklaces, green braids, and in some cases, green face paint. My new boots proved their waterproofability as I stood behind the police barriers in four inches of icy slush — so really, they were entirely worth it. Really.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade is one of the few remaining where no cars, floats, buses, trucks or other vehicles are allowed. And controversially, a gay presence has been banned since 1991 — which ironically, makes the New York City parade more conservative than the one in Dublin.

Queens has hosted a more inclusive “St. Pat’s for All” in early March since 2000.

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