by Doug La Rocque
As The Eastwick Press pointed out last week, what the pandemic couldn’t do this year Mother Nature did (postpone the St. Patrick’s Day parade), but a week later even she was in a much more benevolent mood, holding off the Saturday rain showers until later in the day so revelers could march down Main and Church Streets in all their Irish finery.
Last year the parade organizers were able to hold a “Halfway Hooley” in September, and while enjoyable, many commented it just did not feel like St. Patrick’s Day. That was not the case this past Saturday, March 19, when almost all of the bands and floats scheduled to take part the previous Saturday were able to return. The feeling was back, as is echoed in this statement from one of the organizers, Marie O’Neil: “After several years of no parade you could feel the excitement of the crowd’s young and old, lots of smiling faces lining the streets and then they all came into the Armory for some Irish music, dancers, food and drinks! The committee, made up of Marie O’Neil, Kevin O’Malley, Polly Harrington, Mary Bradley, Maureen Carknard, Michelle Schmigel and Renee Trombley, start fundraising early in the year. We strive to put on the best parade in the area; it is a labor of love and it would not happen without all the support from our community so we thank them all. We will all take a little time off and get right back to fundraising and planning for next year, with the hope everything will go as planned!”
