That big St. Patrick’s Day Parade in NYC

 

 

Anthony Mac Carthy

 

I once overheard a lady in an establishment near Croke Park utter “you know some of the groovers in this neck of the woods think there was hardly any sex in Ireland before Bono put his shades on”.” There’s good sooth in that alright”, said her companion. But in accordance with fact it’s a bit like saying there was hardly any spirituality in Ireland before Saint Patrick put his ropes on. March the 17^th is upon us again and the gentleman credited with introducing Christianity in the Emerald Isle is remembered one more time and another big party is on the horizon and one of the bigger events is still the New York Parade which will go down 5^th Avenue as per usual kick-starting at approx. 11 in the morning. A few years ago I was amongst the sea of faces watching it all unfold and the sound was one of melodious bands & stamping feet and not forgetting the cacophony of sound that is the city that never sleeps itself. And the colour was predominately green which is the colour of envy and some must indeed be envious that the Irish are still allowed to have one of the hippest avenues in the world all to themselves for a day. And also present was my alter ego creation Billy the Blob albeit in the figment of my imagination only. And the grandiose greenness of the Empire State Building was the sight that stuck in the memory as we made our way for some light refreshments and a posse of Irish artistic talent were in town including The Pogues who added their own socking sound to the party and I bet just like the rest of us St. Patrick would have being pleased as punch at Shane MacGowan’s gem “Fairytale of New York”. Would I recommend the parade? What do you think Billy? “I’d only go again if I thought I could touch the sash of the grand marshal and meet a genuine leprechaun”, sort of said Billy in my inner ear. But more seriously there are pros and cons. The Big Apple would do one’s heart good at any time but some say now that we are in the 21^st century and all that, the parade needs a bit of revamping and I recently read a blog on the net that said its time was almost up and it lagged behind similar events like the parades at Mardi Gras New Orleans & Rio De Janeiro Carnival and the blogger went on to depict last years event as the musical equivalent of a Daniel O’ Donnell show as opposed to a U2 extravaganza. But setting side-by-side doesn’t always add up to intrinsic truth although it has its plus points in certain things like in the football & pop music codes. It simply comes with human consciousness limitations and the main difficulty with it is that we are apt to stick too much to the concepts of the mind and more or less ignore the higher viewpoint of soul. And sometimes its plausible to throw that thing called love into the equation. Is it the greatest yardstick of the lot? For anything we love can be saved and the more love in the periphery of a thing the more it ought to be. As an example look no further than the old Beatles recordings. They were made with much care & attention, the songs themselves ooze with love and the demand for them shows no sign of abetting. The love barometer of the NY parade may not quite scale the heights as that of the Liverpool Quartet, but if you look beneath the surface you will find a fair stab of it there – love of community, love of place, etc, etc. Without a doubt this event passes the love test and that’s ample reason for it to continue. And the archbishop of the city Timothy Cardinal Dolan

will be the grand marshal for the 2015 NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

 

Anthony McCarthy is the leader of the spoken word over music act De Confidence. He is the author of the recent book New York City: a Guide, a bit Irish, the Light & the Blob.