St. Patrick comes to New York

The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade took place in 1762 when Irish soldiers serving in the English army marched through New York City. The parade helped them reconnect with their Irish heritage and with other Irishmen in the states. Over the next half of the decade Irish heritage flourished in the U.S. and several organizations were formed to aid immigrants coming here. Every March 17th these organizations would hold parades featuring drums and bagpipes (which the Irish borrowed from the English and Scottish armies) as well as lots and lots of drinking.

During the Great Potato Famine in the mid 1800’s millions of poor Irish immigrants came to the United States hoping that we had potatoes. And like most immigrants they were the victims of stereotypes (see potato stereotype above). They were portrayed as drunk and violent monkeys in newspaper cartoons. Yet every year, Irish Americans would get up off their drunk, violent, monkey-asses and pour themselves into the streets of New York to celebrate Ireland’s patron Saint.

In 1878, several of the Irish aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The established political community took notice of the shear numbers who took to the streets and Irish Americans became a potent political force and before long. Soon the parade became a "must attend" event for political candidates and office holders, drunk and sober alike.

The Irish and Irish Americans are rich with history and tradition... the most famous being a corned beef and cabbage dinner. Well, that's not exactly true. The traditional meal is Irish bacon and cabbage. When Irish immigrants were flooding the shores of the USA they were poor and couldn’t afford such a delicacy as Irish bacon. So they borrowed the cheaper alternative of corned beef from their Jewish neighbors.

But some of the traditions you cannot take away are their Irish pride and their love of good drink (like Jameson's) and good "craic" (pronounced crack). Craic is Gaelic for good times and good conversation. And if you’ve ever sat down for a pint with an Irishman you realize quickly that it has turned into many pints and many lengthy conversations.