Mark you calenders!
The 15th Annual Bronx St. Patrick’s Day Parade starts at noon on Sunday, March 10 at E. Tremont Avenue and Lafayette Avenue, and should offer viewers and revelers around the Throggs Neck community and the Bronx a chance to express their Irish pride.
The parade will march down E. Tremont Avenue, annually packed with spectators decked out in green and a joyful spirit spilling out of the bars and taverns.
This year’s grand marshals are Joe McManus and Rosemary Lombard, with honored clergy Father Stephen Norton of St. Benedict’s Church in Throggs Neck.
There are also 24 outstanding Irish-Americans being honored posthmously for their contributions as honorary grand marshals (see centerfold pages 28 and 29).
Speaking on behalf of the parade committee, Karin O’Conner said that all involved were extremely glad about the longevity of the parade.
“We are really proud because this is 15 years going strong,” said O’Conner. “It’s amazing that what we thought was a good idea 15 years ago really took on such support from the neighborhood and a spirit of community pride. People look forward to this every year.”
The parade will march to Harding Avenue where there will be a reviewing stand, and then make a right turn going west for three or four blocks on Harding if the parade committee’s request is approved as it was submitted to the NYPD, she said.
“We have a good formula, so we are not going to change it too much,” said O’Conner, adding that as in recent years, there will be roughly 15 to 16 bands, with a new band called “Marching Cobras” making its debut.
“We have great reception from the bands, and we have lots of school and community groups,” she said, “Nothing is tremendously new. We have the mass, the breakfast and the line of march.”
The mass for the marchers will be at 9 a.m. at St. Benedict’s Church, with the pre-parade breakfast for the marchers in Father Albert Hall at 10 a.m.
The master of ceremonies for the day will be James McQuade, proprietor of the Schyuler Hill Funeral Home at 3535 E Tremont Avenue, who is also once again the sponsor of the pre-parade breakfast.
“I am proud to sponsor the breakfast,” said McQuade.
McQuade starts the parade off at Lafayette Avenue and then heads down E. Tremont to the reviewing stand, said O’Conner. He is also extremly supportive of the parade each and every year as an active member of the parade committee, in addition to running a demanding business, she said.
Selecting the grand marshals and honored clergy every year refreshes the parade committee, she said.
“To have such a cross section of people really reginergizes the whole idea as to why we pick grand marshals,” she said. “We surprise ourselves every year about how we come up with such a great representation of the community to lead our parade.”
Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393
