By: Jon Dusza, Managing Editor
St. Patrick’s Day is many things for many people. It is a religious holiday, a celebration of Irish heritage, an excuse to celebrate (drink), or some combination of the three. One thing that stands out to me in particular about St. Patrick’s Day is the prominence of St. Patrick’s Day parades. As somebody who thinks society could use more parades, I appreciate the parade fever that comes in mid-March every year. The tradition of a parade on St. Patrick’s Day has different origins than one may expect.
Ironically, St. Patrick’s Day parades, the hallmark that they are today, began in America. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration which we have evidence for took place in the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida in 1601, 20 years before the Mayflower full of Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. St. Patrick was apparently the “protector” of the St. Augustine maize fields. According to historian Michael Francis, records show that there was a parade in honor of an Irish saint in St. Augustine. Considering the veneration of St. Patrick in the city, it is a reasonable conclusion that this was the earliest St. Patrick’s Day parade. In 1732 and 1762 respectively, Boston and New York City held their first St. Patrick’s Day parades.
St. Patrick’s Day parades began in Ireland around the early 20th century. The historical consensus seems to be that the first Irish St. Patrick’s Day parade in Ireland took place in Waterford in 1903; however, I found newspaper reports of a parade in Dublin as early as 1900. In Dublin on March 15, 1903, Father Byrne addressed a crowd of paraders, celebrating the Irish language. Fr. Byrne implored the crowd to keep the Irish language alive, and, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, to refrain from alcohol. Such was the character of the early Irish St. Patrick’s Day parades: a celebration of Ireland, namely the Irish language, Gaelic, which was falling by the wayside by the late 19th century.
The first mention of a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Buffalo that I could find falls under the headline “Riot in Troy” from an 1837 issue of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. “His saintship must have had the organ of combativeness large, if we can judge by his followers,” the article quipped about those taking part in the parade. Apparently, the parade was so raucous that the military had to be called out to settle it. Ultimately, though, “a resort to firearms was happily found to be unnecessary.” That same year, in Buffalo proper, “three youngsters” were arrested on St. Patrick’s Day and “admonished by the mayor” for “singing lustily the praises of the saint and whiskey.”
In the years between, St. Patrick’s Day in Buffalo was an occasion for meetings and banquets. Every year, Buffalo newspapers were filled with advertisements for community events from temperance meetings to dances and everything in between. Some forms of parades may have existed: an 1849 article in the Buffalo Courier Express said that “The various benevolent societies usually parade with their banners, badges, and a band of music” on St. Patrick’s Day, but such parades were evidently small enough to not receive much coverage in Buffalo newspapers.
The St. Patrick Day parade in Buffalo as we know it began in 1915. A few days before St. Patrick’s Day 1915, the Buffalo Times printed an article about an upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade which “will be one of the liveliest seventeenths in history… this is to be a real celebration of the old fashioned kind.” 4,000 people were set to join in the parade. “Probably in all this United States, except in New York,” the Times bragged, “no bigger St. Patrick’s Day parade will be staged th[a]n on this day in Buffalo.” Bands played the standard Irish patriotic tune “The Wearing o’ The Green” and the World War I-era smash hit “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” as the parade marched a winding route from Louisiana Street to Elk Street. The parade proved to be an “unqualified success.” Since then, the parade has been a yearly staple in Buffalo.
This year’s parade will be on Sunday, March 16 at 2:00 on Delaware Ave, carrying on the tradition for another year.
Comments