48 years ago, Ellen McAnelly was hosting a St. Patrick’s Day event at Finnegan’s pub. There were 18 people there and she decided they were going to have a parade.
They opened the doors, walked outside and around the pub and that was Huntsville’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Since then the parade has grown to be one of Huntsville’s signature civic events. Since the weather forecast didn’t allow the organisers to have a large downtown parade this year, they went to Straight To Ale Brewing and in true Ellen spirit we did the same thing that happened 48 years ago. 
"We invited the people there at the time to join in," says Lisa Bollinger of the parade committee. "One of our parade princesses joined us and the Huntsville Bagpiper (above)and Irish Society of North Alabama led the way!"
