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'Beannachtam na

Feile Padraig!'

by Lois Bolin
Old Naples Historian
W ho doesn’t love March 17th - the

day that has the whole world
thinking green? This tradition
in America began when Irish settlers to the
American colonies brought the tradition of
celebrating St. Patrick’s feast day, but who
had the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade? Where
was it held? These questions require much
discussion- preferable before the third round
of Guinness.
The oldest St Patrick’s Day parade in
Ireland began in 1917 in County Wexford,
but here is America, the first parade began in
1737 or 1762 or was it 1780.
In 1737, the Charitable Irish Society was
formed in Boston by the Scots-Irish Ulster
Presbyterian colonists, who assisted Irish
immigrants through the process of settling
into this strange new country. They marked
St. Patrick's Day with a modest parade and
closed out the celebration with dinner at a
local tavern.
In 1762, the first St. Paddy's Day parade
in New York was held at the Crown & Thistle
Tavern in Manhattan. Soldiers from the
British Army's Irish regiments met, drank
and toasted King George III before parading BUD AND MARGE BRENNAN - ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADE INSPIRATION
through New York with the "playing of fifes
stand for liberty, among the Scots-Irish in my native Virginia.” Luckily that did not
and drums” then, no surprise here, headed
come to pass.
back to the pub for more drinks. Interesting
note: these were Irish Protestant soldiers, as
Catholics were forbidden entry into the army
until 1778. WHAT TO WEAR
Four years after the New York celebration, The March 17th tradition of wearing green is explained in differing ways. While
General George Washington issued an blue was originally the color associated with the holiday, over time green took over in
order to give his troops the day off for St. popularity due perhaps to Ireland’s nickname as “The Emerald Isle”, or possibly because
Patrick's Day in honor of his large (and loyal) of the clover that St. Patrick used in his teachings about Catholicism. Yet, for many,
contingent of Irish soldiers. Washington orange has been the color to wear since 1690, when William of Orange (William III),
noted his trust in these warriors when he said, the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, defeated King James II, a Roman Catholic,
“If defeated everywhere else, I will make my in the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin.

82 Life in Naples | March 2017