- Grand Marshal Francis X. Comerford led the 251st. New York St. Patrick's Day Parade into the history books last Saturday. Picture by James Higgins. higginsphotonyc.com
Grand Marshal Francis X. Comerford was a veritable kid in a candy store on Saturday morning last as the minutes ticked down to the start of 251st consecutive New York St. Patrick's Day Parade.
His parade, his moment in the Irish American sun.
And under the sun too as a balmy early spring day draped itself around the Fifth Avenue march and drew huge crowds of marchers and spectator on a shortened but packed route that stretched from 44th Street to 79th.
Comerford dallied at the start of the line of march for a few minutes saluting passing veterans groups, but when he set off up the avenue it was with a jaunt that said it all.
Waving his walking stick at the cheering crowds he walked into parade history and along the way was indeed followed by his alma mater in the form of ROTC members from Xavier High School.
It was a day for veterans and serving members of America's armed forces, to which the parade had been dedicated by the organizing committee. It was also a day to salute the fallen, especially hero Navy SEAL Michael Murphy whose father, Dan, led a group dubbed "The Friends of Michael Murphy."
In his hands he carried the case containing his son's Congressional Medal of Honor.
As likely as not, most spectators probably didn't notice the medal, but those who did would have known that it's men and women like Murphy who makes days like this possible in New York, and all across America.
The weather is a toss-up on St. Patrick's Day but this year it smiled. It smiled on newly minted cardinal, Timothy Dolan; it smiled on milling teenagers, many of them on spring break; it smiled on County Cavan, the lead county in the parade, and not too far short of a thousand people who marched behind the county's banner.
It smiled on grandmas and grandkids, protestors who charge that the parade is discriminatory because it doesn't allow gay groups to march, pipers, cops, firemen, baton twirlers, drummers, moms and dads.
And at the end of a day that was long - marching units were still stepping off at 5 p.m. - the 251st parade took its place in the history books, already becoming a memory, though for sure a warm one.
