By Richard Kaufman
Every year, the Greenwich St. Patrick’s Day Parade draws thousands of people into the heart of town to celebrate Irish pride, tradition and the beginning of spring. The day is one of the most highly anticipated events on the calendar, and it wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of the Greenwich Hibernian Association (GHA).
Since 1975, the GHA has organized, sponsored and put on the parade, which begins at Town Hall and goes north to Route 1, then down Greenwich Avenue to Steamboat Road where it disbands. This year’s parade will step-off at 2 p.m., on Sunday, March 24. The Grand Marshal is Monsignor J. Peter Cullen from St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Greenwich. Lt. David Nemecek of the Greenwich Police Department will blow the ceremonial whistle to begin the festivities.
Although the parade isn’t lengthy, the planning is.
“It’s about a full year planning process. As soon as this year’s parade is over, [the parade committee] will meet, review what went well, what might be a problem, plan for the future and pick a date for next year,” said GHA Vice President and parade publicity chairperson, James Dougherty. “Once we have that date, we start letting the bands and different groups know, and ask them to hold the date aside for us. It’s just a yearlong process of organizing the bands, the parade, the permits with the town and publicizing the parade.”
Overall, a core of 6-8 people from the GHA help to coordinate the event, which features roughly 800 marchers, according to Dougherty. The Kiwanis Club volunteers to help line everyone up near Town Hall, members of the GHA are on hand in case anyone has questions or issues, and GHA President and parade Master of Ceremonies, Haydn O’Shea, takes his spot on the stand across from the Senior Center.
The order in which the parade proceeds isn’t determined until close to parade day.
“We kind of wait until the last minute to finalize the order. [As of last week] we were still getting people calling and asking to march,” Dougherty said. The main objective is to properly space out the bands and dance groups and fill in everybody in between.
“We have a really good lineup of bands this year,” Dougherty said. “We try to keep the same groups and same bands every year, but there are always different commitments. We try to keep it as close to what works as possible.”
This year’s parade features:
Five bagpipe bands: Greenwich Pipe Band, Fairfield Gaelic Pipe Band, Fairfield County Pipes & Drums, Westchester County Firefighters Pipe Band and the Iona College Pipe Band.
Four other bands: Port Chester High School Marching Band, The Tappan Zee Bridgemen, Nash Drum Corps., and Wholly Brass Band (new this year).
Three Irish dance groups from Stamford: Lynn Academy of Irish Dance, Harney Pender Keady Academy of Irish Dancers and Anam Cara Irish Dance.
Five fire companies: Amogerone Downtown Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, Firefighters Local 1042, Cos Cob Fire Police Patrol, Banksville Fire Department and the Glenville Volunteer Fire Company. About 30 various civic organizations will march as well, along with local and state elected officials.
The Hibernians have a float that is used, but organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, put together new floats each year. The Shriners use their motorcar display.
Last year, the parade cost around $12,000 to produce. This year, Dougherty said, he expects that total to be higher because of the extra bands and rising costs to secure them.
“The parade is very expensive to put on. A lot of people think the marching bands and the groups come and march for free, but we do have to pay all of the bands to come and some of the other groups to come and march,” Dougherty added. ” In addition to planning and all of that, we do have to do fundraising during the year to raise the money to put into the parade. The bands get more expensive each year, and if there are more parades in the area, there’s more competition that raises the prices, too. It’s an expensive event to do, but we do enjoy doing it.”
The GHA raises money mostly through their annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance, and by mailing appeals to regular GHA contributors.
Dougherty served as the grand marshal of the parade 10 years ago, and has been part of the planning process for the last 15 years.
“For me, it’s a long time tradition. I think I’ve seen every Greenwich St. Patrick’s Day parade from the beginning. It’s been a long-term involvement. It’s just a way to highlight my Irish ancestry and pride in the Irish culture each year,” he said. “For the town, it’s kind of a kick-off to warmer weather hopefully. It’s the first big event of spring. A lot of people have it circled on their calendar each year. It’s a multigenerational family event for a lot of people.”
After all of the days spent planning, Dougherty said he enjoys seeing people finally enjoying the parade after it begins.
“It’s always a combination of relief and pride in the [Greenwich Hibernian Association], St. Patrick’s Day and the culture,” he said.
