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From the prayers and hymns at Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the beating of drums and the skirl of bagpipes on Fifth Avenue, St. Patrick’s Day in Manhattan filled the air with heart-stirring sounds as it honored Irish faith and heritage.
The annual celebration honors the saint who brought the Catholic faith to Ireland and who is the patron of the Archdiocese of New York. It also honors the heritage of the Irish people and the contributions to American life of generations of Irish immigrants.
Cardinal Dolan celebrated the annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass in the cathedral and offered a joyful welcome to the worshippers who filled its pews, including political and civic dignitaries. In his remarks he emphasized the importance of the Catholic faith in Irish life and history.
“How appropriate that we would begin our feast day,” he said, “with this greatest of all prayers that resonates in the heart of Ireland, this holy sacrifice of the Mass, which we offer in praise to God for Irish culture, faith, freedom and heritage.”
Among those whom the cardinal welcomed were New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Police Commissioner William Bratton; Barbara Jones, consul general of Ireland; and Archbishop Bernardito Auza, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
The cardinal also greeted the city’s police and firefighters and the 69th Infantry Regiment—the famous “Fighting 69th.” Members of the regiment marched into the cathedral to sustained applause and formed an honor guard for the entrance procession.
The cardinal welcomed the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Sen. George J. Mitchell, who was a U.S. senator from Maine, 1980-1995. He served as U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2001, and led the negotiations of the Good Friday Agreement, a key development in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, in 1998. He has been involved in peace negotiations in the Middle East.
Sen. Mitchell told CNY later that serving as Grand Marshal was “a great honor.”
“I’m pleased and humbled to be asked to serve in this role,” he said. He described the parade as “a model of inclusion and an expression of our pride in our Irish heritage and also our pride in being Americans.”
This year’s celebration of St. Patrick’s Day marked an anniversary both joyful and solemn: the centennial of the Easter Rising of 1916. It took place during Easter Week when a group of Irishmen—patriots to the Irish, but rebels to the British—declared Irish freedom from Great Britain by reading the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin. Under British law it was an act of insurrection, and England executed its leaders, but ultimately it led to the founding of the Irish Republic.
Sen. Mitchell told CNY that he is traveling to Dublin on April 10, at the request of the Irish government, to celebrate the Easter Rising Centennial.
“It obviously marks a significant milestone in Irish history,” he said.
The homilist at the Mass was Msgr. Joseph G. Quinn, pastor of Our Lady of the Snows parish in Clarks Summit, Pa., in the Diocese of Scranton. He served from 2009 to 2015 as vice president for mission and ministry at Fordham University. Before beginning studies for the priesthood he was a civil lawyer and federal judge.
Msgr. Quinn called Cardinal Dolan “the best living example I know of true Gospel joy.” He cited Sen. Mitchell as a “lifetime hero of peace for all in Ireland and well beyond.”
In his homily he quoted from the Mass reading from the First Letter of St. Peter: “Above all, let your love for one another be intense.” The love of the Irish, he said, has indeed been intense throughout Irish history, and he added that the Easter Rising centennial “is being marked with grateful hearts and a newly energized zest.”
Msgr. Quinn quoted the words of Jesus from the Gospel reading, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
“Isn’t that precisely what we and our ancestors have been doing on this date, in this grand city, for the past 255 years?” he asked. “Coming together to remember all those who out of their untiring love for others did, indeed, live their lives so generously and in such unstintingly selfless fashion as to be able to say that they did ‘lay down’ their lives for their families and friends? Isn’t that why we continue to remember St. Patrick, the fourth-century missionary of merciful love?”
The 255th St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York stepped off ceremoniously, led by mounted police and the Fighting 69th. The bands and Irish societies marched proudly, the music resounded, the flags and banners rippled in the wind and the crowds cheered.
The Lavender & Green Alliance, a contingent of about 250 gay people and supporters, joined the line of march for the first time. Mayor de Blasio marched with the unit, ending his two-year boycott of the parade.
As thoroughly Irish as the celebration was, there seemed to be a sense of universality in it as people of many ethnic backgrounds shared in the joy of the day. The mood seemed to go deeper than the cliché that “everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.”
Carol Bogdziewicz, who is retired from the insurance industry, came from Manasquan, N.J., with a friend. She said she loves parades, pipers and the Irish.
“There’s no one like the Irish that knows how to have a good time,” she said. She added, “And so friendly! They open their hearts.”
Susan and Mark McQuillan, originally from Brooklyn and now living in North Bergen, N.J., brought their 9-year-old son, Nicholas—he’s called Nick—to see his first New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade. McQuillan’s background is Irish, his wife’s is Polish, and Nick, who is 9, is Chinese. He wore a tall, Kelly-green leprechaun hat.
Mrs. McQuillan said that she and her husband went to China to adopt Nick when he was 18 months old.
“We’re a multicultural family,” she said with a smile. “We celebrate everything.” That includes Nick’s birth heritage; the family attends the Chinese Lunar New Year parade. Mrs. McQuillan remarked that her husband has been researching his ancestry online. “We want our son to know this part of his heritage,” she said. “We wanted to show him the (Irish) counties, and the banners, and the bagpipers.”
Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden, N.J., formerly an auxiliary bishop of the New York Archdiocese, was viewing the parade in front of the cathedral. Around his neck he wore entwined strings of green and white Mardi Gras beads from New Orleans, with a fist-sized, ceramic green cabbage suspended from the front. He enjoyed the kidding he received about the cabbage, but he was serious—and he evoked the memory of tragic Irish famines—when he remarked, “It kept our people alive.”
Cardinal Dolan, viewing the parade, told CNY, “It’s a great day to be Irish, it’s a great day to be an American, it’s a great day to be a New Yorker, it’s a great day to be a Catholic, isn’t it?
“We celebrate all of it,” he continued. “Catholic with a capital C, because we’re proud of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church that Ireland, through St. Patrick’s sons and daughters, brought to the whole world, including this archdiocese. And catholic with a small c—‘Here comes everybody,’ like James Joyce said about the Church, right?”
