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I’d worked my 33rd St. Patrick’s Day parade and my long journey was over. I hadn’t planned it that way, but with vacation days owed me and leave accrued, that’s the way it worked out.
Recently, I’d asked my friend and expert researcher, Terry Yacona, if she could ascertain when New York City celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a parade for the very first time. I was in for quite a surprise.
Terry’s research took me back a very long way — all the way back to fifth century Ireland and to a Catholic priest named Patrick. Patrick, at that time a Bishop, baptized thousands of people, established churches, ordained priests, converted the poor and the sons of kings, and encouraged women to become nuns. In his letter entitled “Declaration,” he indeed became the heart and soul and voice of the Irish.
But as to when a St. Patrick’s Day parade first arrived in New York City, I was astounded by Terry’s answer. The first recorded parade came 14 years before the signing of our Declaration of Independence. On March 17, 1762, a small group of Irish New Yorkers marched on what is now Barclay and Church streets, where more than 200 years later the Twin Towers would rise. Towers in great part built by Irish-American hands.

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