Loretta leads 257 into the history books

Grand Marshal Loretta Brennan Glucksman waving from her carriage. Photo by Dominick Totino.

 

By Ray O’Hanlon

Call it Loretta’s luck.

March 2018 has been the month of the nor’easter

There were a couple before the St. Patrick’s Day parade and at time of writing another is reportedly on the way.

But in between there was a Saturday of what could be described as typical March weather, that being a chilly day in the shade, a fairly warm one in the sun.

And there was indeed sunshine, a few clouds and a breeze.

Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter

Sign up today to get daily, up-to-date news and views from Irish America.

And countless marchers and spectators on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan enjoying the 257th consecutive New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

And this one on the day itself.

St. Patrick’s Day next year will be on a Sunday so the march, as was the case this year, will be on a Saturday.

Grand Marshal Loretta Brennan Glucksman didn’t actually march in her Saturday parade.

As has been the case with the previous two women grand marshals she rode up the avenue in a carriage, and a grand one too with her grandson for company.

Not that she was alone.

Loretta was the center of attention for the crowds clapping and cheering as the parade made its way northward from its 11 a.m. starting time at 44th Street until the early evening hours when the last marching units reached the end of the line at 79th Street.

Along the way there were the traditional marching units led by the famed fighting 69th, high school twirlers and county associations – led this year by Sligo – police, firefighters, families and bands galore.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar walked in the parade, as did Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Other visiting Irish politicians on the avenue included Fianna Fail’s Senator Mark Daly, Gerry Adams and the new Sinn Féin leadership duo of Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill.

But while politics has its place in the parade it is not the parade’s prime purpose.

The veneration and celebration of St. Patrick is the annual ignition for a gathering that ranks itself as one of the foremost parades in the entire world.

St. Patrick, of course, had pride of place in the cathedral named after him and at the Mass presided over by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, himself a former grand marshal.

And the saint’s spirit reached beyond the buttressed cathedral into the surrounding streets thronged with parade goers and many others wearing a little or a lot of green on the big Irish day.

There were parades all across America last Saturday, indeed all around the world, but New York’s was, most would agree, the primus inter pares.

And, thankfully, nor’easter free.

 

Donate