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Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade

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They’re Putting the Fun in Fundraising

You get to see these little girls in action at the Blackthorn fundraiser.

You get to see these little girls in action at the Blackthorn fundraiser.

When you’re Irish and you need to raise money, you schedule some fun and ask people to pay for it. That’s what the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade committee is doing and they have to come up with $100,000 so they’re offering lots of fun, starting this weekend.

The St. Paddy’s Day Parade will have a table at the Mid-Winter Scottish and Irish Festival which starts Friday night at the Valley Forge Convention Center and goes through Sunday. Local Philly organizations including the Sunday WTMR-800AM radio shows, the Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic Rose of Tralee Center, and www.irishphiladelphia.com will have raffle items on display (since it’s Valentine’s weekend, we understand there’s a lot of chocolate involved) to raise money for the parade expenses, which include police, bleachers, port-a-potties and clean-up, all costs the city picked up in better economic times. In between listening to the earthquake producing Albannach, dancing to the Andy Cooney band or tasting whiskey, stop by and take a chance or make a donation.

On Sunday, February 21, AOH Msgr. Thomas J. Rilley Div. 39 is sponsoring a benefit from 3-7 PM honoring 2010 Grand Marshal Seamus Boyle, national AOH president, at the Prezel Community Center, 2990 St. Vincent Street, in the Mayfair section of the city. Your $25 donation covers food, beer, wine, soda and music by the Shantys, the Gallagher Brothers, and Ballina and an appearance by the always flashy Celtic Flame dancers.

Con Murphy’s Pub at 17th and the Parkway is the location for another benefit on February 23 from 6 to 9 PM—right there on the parade route. Expect gourmet hors d’oeuvres, an open bar and music by Slainte for $50 per person. There’s even a parking discount: $4 right next door on 17th Street, between the Parkway and Arch Street. For additional information contact: Mary Frances Fogg at 215-744-5589. Get your tickets at the door.

Then hang on to your hats—but not your wallet. On Sunday, March 7, starting at 4 PM, Blackthorn will be rocking the Springfield Country Club, 400 Sproul Road, Springfield, Delco, a repeat of last year’s very successful fundraiser. For $25, you get a buffet meal and cash bar. You also get to see the McDade, Cara, and McHugh dancers, many of whom compete at the international level. You can purchase tickets at the door or contact Parade Director Michael Bradley at 610-449-4320.

February 11, 2010 by
News

Compromise in the Works For St. Paddy’s Day Parade Costs

On Monday, St. Patrick’s Day Parade Director Michael Bradley finally had his oft-postponed meeting with Philadelphia’s city council and top representatives of the mayor’s office to discuss the $112,000 costs for this year’s ethnic parades.

The word for the day was “compromise.”

“I’m very optimistic we’re going to reach a fair settlement,” said Bradley, who is part of a new organization encompassing the diverse group of annual city marchers—Poles, Puerto Ricans, Greeks, Germans, Italians, and the Irish. Estimated total costs for all six parades is $112,000, with the St. Patrick’s Day parade the city’s highest ticket item.

A good part of that price tag will be slashed because the city agreed it wasn’t fair to charge the groups for police officers who are already on duty but reassigned to a parade. Bradley says that the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association may also arrange for its own portable toilets and possibly other parade essentials because it can get them at a lower price than the city charges.

Though the parade will march on as scheduled on Sunday, March 14, there will still be several fundraisers leading up to it. The association hasn’t paid last year’s bill—roughly $30,000—because it’s still being negotiated and it may need to ante up the same amount this year. “We still need to raise about $60,000,” says Bradley.

The first benefit is February 7, a Super Bowl party at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, where the game will be on all three flat-screen TVs at the bar. For $20, there’s a full buffet and a live half-time performance by the Vince Gallagher Band. On February 21, a fundraiser that also honors Parade Grand Marshall Seamus Boyle, national president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, is being held at the Mayfair Community Center in Philadelphia. A $25 charge covers beer, wine, soda, and a buffet along with music by the Shantys, Ballina, The Gallagher Brothers and the Irish dance group, Celtic Flame. A third benefit is in the works for the Springfield Country Club in Delaware County, says Bradley.

Much of the credit for the new parade détente, says Bradley, goes to City Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, who is one of the organizers of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and Councilman Bill Green, who worked behind the scenes to bring the administration and the parade groups to the table.

“They listened to us, gave us time to talk, and the representatives from the managing director’s office were wonderful to work with,” Bradley said.

Another good thing to come out of the meeting was a renewed call to determine just how much revenue the parades bring into the city to fill in that so far elusive profit column. “Bill Green was very helpful in that,” says Bradley, who estimates the St. Patrick’s Day Parade brings as many as 100,000 people to city where they “eat, drink, pay for parking, and pay taxes. Plus we meet downtown all year and support city businesses. We’re a boon to the economy of Philadelphia.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer quotes Green, who suggested the city launch and economic impact study, as telling the administration, “Start using data to make these decisions, rather than guessing.”

Bradley brought up one cost to the city that hasn’t been factored in: the resultant bad publicity that could hurt Philadelphia’s bid to host World Cup Soccer, the Olympics, and the 2012 Democratic National Convention. “How do you attract world class events by nickel and diming people?” he asked.

January 27, 2010 by
News, People

After More Than 40 Years, The Philadelphia Parade Committee’s Money Man Hands In His Ledger

Paul J. Phillips Jr., right, with son Chris.

Paul J. Phillips Jr., right, with son Chris.

How long has Paul J. Phillips Jr. been involved in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade?

“Longer than I’ve been alive,” says son Chris Phillips, current recording secretary of the St. Patrick’s Day Obervance Association. Chris was born in 1963. His dad became treasurer of the association in 1962. Aside from a couple of years when he served as president (1989-1990), Paul Phillips has been treasurer ever since.

Phillips recently retired from the position, handing over the reins to Leonard Armstrong.

He wasn’t expecting to be treasurer for quite so long. “They asked me to do it on a temporary basis, and I did,” he says. But the Philadelphia parade is the sort of thing that stirs passions and inspires deep loyalty. So for more than 40 years, the 86-year-old Gray’s Ferry native and Southeast Catholic alum diligently watched over the finances of the nation’s second-oldest parade of any kind.

It was never an easy job, his son says—and over the years, it got harder. But Paul Phillips was equal to the task.

“He’s always been a man who kept good records,” says Chris, who recalls his father showing up at his last meeting as treasurer with the same leather-bound ledger he inherited upon becoming the association treasurer. In the early going, the parade was relatively small. But, says Chris, “over the year’s it’s grown, and he’s had to deal with managing large amounts of money every year. Keeeping all of that together has been a stretch sometimes.”

Though the job was difficult, the unflappable treasurer apparently took it all in stride. For that, he says he owes a debt of gratitude to current and past colleagues on the board. “I’ve always had a great deal of cooperation from the other board members,” Phillips says. He remembers many of them with great fondness, and he counts himself lucky for all the friendships he made on and off the board, including such notables as former mayors James Tate and Bill Green.

For his partners on the board, the feeling is mutual. They honored him Thursday night for his many years of service. (Happily for everyone involved, he’ll remain on the executive committee.)

As he accepted a large plaque from association President Michael F. Callahan, Phillips took a moment to reflect on all those years of service. “I thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “I loved it.”

January 14, 2010 by
People

Marching Since 1955, Seamus Boyle Gets to Wear the Top Hat in The 2010 St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Seamus Boyle, center, at a Commodore Barry commemoration.

Seamus Boyle, center, at a Commodore Barry commemoration.

Seamus Boyle arrived in Philadelphia from County Armagh in 1954. In 1955, with his father Terence, he marched in his first Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade. Boyle has marched in the Philly parade almost every year ever since.

This year is no exception. But this year’s parade is going to be extra-special for the burly, low-key Boyle, a resident of the Academy Gardens neighborhood in the Northeast. He’ll be marching at the head of the parade as grand marshal.

Boyle is no stranger to honors. A longtime member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 39 in Tacony, Boyle last year was elected AOH national president—the first national president from Philadelphia since 1927 and a three-to-one favorite.

Still, he says, “I was humbled and shocked that I was even considered for it. I was told maybe a month or so before the election that my name was put in. Then when I was told I won, that was unbelievable. It’s a great honor, especially when I look at some of the people who came before me. There’re some very serious high-class people there.”

It’s an especially great honor when he thinks how far the parade has come. Back when he was first starting his annual St. Patrick’s Day parade tradition, it was much smaller. “It was not anywhere as big as it is today,” he says. “It’s grown even over the past 20 years.”

AOH representation in the parade is pretty much taken for granted. About 20 Philadelphia-area divisions march in the parade now. But back in 1955, only three or divisions took part—but of course, there weren’t that many AOH divisions in Philadelphia then, either. The AOH, too, has grown.

“It’s a privilege for me to represent the AOH in the parade,” he says. “The AOH is probably the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the country, and it’s known all over. In Philadelphia, it has grown tremendously. I think this is great for the AOH. We do a lot to bring out the culture and heritage of Ireland. This helps our cause.”

Boyle is also pleased to represent the Irish immigrant population. As a member of the AOH, he has been very involved in promoting peace in Northern Ireland and Irish unity. He hasn’t forgotten his roots in the North. The fact that the parade committee selected an immigrant, he says, makes it “all the more impressive.”

Parade Director Michael Bradley says Boyle’s Northern Ireland efforts were one of the main reasons he was recognized to head the March 14 parade. “He’s been going over the Belfast for years,” Bradley says. “He represents Philadelphia very well over there in all the good things he does.”

The fact that Boyle is national president of the AOH also probably played a role, but that was not the principal reason for his selection. Boyle has been very active in the Philadelphia Irish community for quite some time, including his activities at Division 39. Boyle’s national AOH leadership, Bradley says, is “just icing on the cake. But he’s being honored for a lifetime of service. He was long overdue for grand marshal. There’s five or six people who are so deserving and its so hard to select one person every year.”

Boyle is obviously excited to have been picked, and that too is gratifying, says Bradley. “When they see a grand marshal who is thrilled and very happy to be honored, it makes us feel like we did a good job,” he says. “Then our marshals get excited and it transfers to everyone involved in the parade. It just seems to spread.”

One reason for Boyle’s clear excitement is simply this: his memories of his father’s own involvement in the parade. That’s who he’ll be thinking about as he marches up the Parkway. His father Terence passed away in 1992, but the parade was always close to his heart. “My father brought me to my first parade in ’55. While he was alive, I don’t think he missed too many parades, either. He was always there. It would be nice if he was still around to march with me up at the head of the

January 14, 2010 by
News

Help Save the Parade

Until a couple of weeks ago, the only communication the city of Philadelphia received urging the city to financially support the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade and other ethnic parades in the city came from the organizers themselves.

That’s not enough, says St. Patrick’s Day Parade Director Michael Bradley, who will be testifying before City Council on December 8 along with members of Ethnic Americans United, the new group comprising representatives of all the ethnic parades that march the streets of Philadelphia every year.

So this week, on the heels of the city’s loss of the Dad Vail Regatta after more than 50 years because of money woes, he emailed 25,000 people, including all the major Irish organization in and around the city, asking them to contact the mayor and city council members. Here’s the text of his message:

“Please contact Philadelphia City Council and Mayor Nutter and tell them we need funding for our Irish Parade on March 14, 2010 or it will go the way of the other lost events and revenue in Philadelphia.

“We have been marching since 1771. Do they want to be the ones responsible for the worldwide negative publicity this will create if we don’t reach some kind of SHARING of costs? We are not asking for it all!

“Please be respectful and positive, but strong and effective with your comments. Please contact each member of City Council, you can copy all of them in your “EMAIL TO:” line and send one email to all at once and I will have a copy for our records . This must be done before December 5th as I have to testify on our behalf on December 8th in front of City Council:

anna.verna@phila.gov; bill.green@phila.gov; blondell.reynolds.brown@phila.gov; brian.o’neill@phila.gov; curtis.jones@phila.gov; darrell.clarke@phila.gov; donna.miller@phila.gov; frank.dicicco@phila.gov; frank.rizzo@phila.gov; jack.kelly@phila.gov; james.kenney@phila.gov; jannie.l.blackwell@phila.gov; joan.krajewski@phila.gov; maria.q.sanchez@phila.gov; marian.tasco@phila.gov; william.greenlee@phila.gov; wilson.goode@phila.gov; Michael.nutter@phila.gov; info@philadelphiastpatsparade.com

November 19, 2009 by
News

Will the Parade Pass Us By?

During the worst recession in 80 years, with an unemployment rate inching up like holiday weight gain, you might think that whether the City of Philadelphia funds or doesn’t fund the St. Patrick’s Day parade is a non-issue. Petty. Paltry. Pale by comparison.

But not to parade director Michael Bradley. Nor to the thousands who plan their last Sunday before March 17 around the nation’s second oldest (starting in 1771, it has marched continuously every year) St. Paddy’s Day Parade. Traditions are by their very nature part of our history, allowing us to mark time or relive the past–a rare gift, which is what makes it so hard for us to let go of them.

So Bradley will be fighting City Hall again this year—not to have the city pick up the entire freight for the parade, but to give the Irish and all the other ethnic groups who march every year down the Parkway, Broad Street, or through a neighborhood, a break on the bill.

“We’re not out to get the city to cover 100 percent of everything,” says the Delware County businessman, who also runs the Irish Festival on Penn’s Landing in June. “Everyone should kick in. I proposed that the city provide $125,000 and the state another $125,000 and that will cover the expenses for all the ethnic parades. We need everyone to compromise. It can’t be us 100% and them zero.”

Bradley will be testifying next Tuesday before City Council which is holding hearings on the parade costs, which are higher than in most large cities. In Chicago, for example, the city not only allows parade organizers (the local plumbers union) to dye the Chicago River green, it only tags them with an $8,000 bill, says director Kevin Sherlock. The organizers make up the rest of the money they need—including $27,000 for “terrorist insurance”—at an annual fundraiser in January

“For $8,000 we get a lot,” says Sherlock, who is vice president of the Chicago Journeyman Plumbers Union Local 130. “I can’t complain. The street sweepers keep the streets spotlessly clean, the city supplies port-a-potties all over the place, they close the streets down for us, set up the staging area, all traffic is stopped. We get a tremendous amount of help and support from the city.”

Along with Michael Blichasz, co-host of the Pulaski Day March, Bradley formed a group called Ethnic Americans United which includes representatives from the Puerto Rican, Italian, German, Greek, and other ethnic communities whose parades might not get off the curb this year. Or ever again. As Blichasz said in a letter to Mayor Michael Nutter, “the unaffordable fees being charged this year threaten the parades’ continued existence.”

That was certainly true for the Columbus Day parade. It didn’t happen this year. Though the Mummer’s Parade is expected to march down Broad Street as usual, the city will be delivering organizers a bill too—one much larger than last year, when the last-minute announcement that the city wasn’t going to pick up the tab nearly caused the strutting to stop dead on Two Street. Last minute donations and fundraisers—and the gesture by the city to forgive $300,000 in costs because of the short notice– saved the Mummers’ parade. The city will not be so forgiving this year. Last year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade was also shortened to save thousands in police and sanitation bills, and shortfalls were made up by donations and 11th hour fundraisers.

Bradley has also asked for an accounting from the city on the fees they’re charging for items like portable rest rooms, police, and bleachers. “I looked at the sanitation fees and I felt they were fair,” says Bradley. “But I contacted the port-a-potty vendor and their price was half what the city is charging us. I’m also concerned about the security costs. The police are wonderful, but I can’t believe that some of them can’t be working straight time. They can’t all be on overtime.”

He pointed to the last year’s Phillies’ World Series parade which, he said, cost the city $1 million. “I was told they bring lots of money to the city,” he says, “but so do we. We hold all our meetings in Center City, put up out-of-town bands in the city, bring people into the city for the day where they spend money. I want some acknowledgement of that.”

Though some have suggested that the parade be moved out into the suburbs, Bradley doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Many suburban communities now have their own parades. And for 239 years—before the Declaration of Independence was signed–it’s been the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “All of these ethnic parades celebrate city neighborhoods,” he argues. “We don’t want to see these traditions go by the wayside.”

What can you do? Write a letter to Mayor Nutter or the Philadelphia City Council in support of the efforts of Ethnic Americans United before next Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

November 4, 2009 by
News

St. Paddy’s Day Parade Award Winners Honored

CBS 3's meteorologist Doug Kammerer checks out a cellphone picture with award-winning Rince Ri dancers Katie McGlynn and Marielle Baird.

CBS 3's meteorologist Doug Kammerer checks out a cellphone picture with award-winning Rince Ri dancers Katie McGlynn and Marielle Baird.

It may be April, but the St. Patrick’s Day festivities weren’t over till this week, when parade award winners were given their plaques, trophies, and crystal bowls at a banquet upstairs at Finnigan’s Wake in Philadelphia.

Vince Gallagher and Karen Boyce McCollum provided the music, parade association President Michael Callahan was master of ceremonies, and the CBS3 crew who do the play-by-play during the parade, which is televised live on Channel 3, acted as presenters.

But you can see it all here, via our photos and video.

April 16, 2009 by
News

As the Parade (Still!) Passes By

The Emerald Pipe Band marches up the Parkway.

The Emerald Pipe Band marches up the Parkway.

We stumbled upon the New York Police Department Pipe Band as the pipers were warming up on JFK Boulevard, before the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade had started. They were making such a great noise, we just had to snag some video.

And that was just the beginning.

As the parade marched on, we found lots more reasons to haul out the videocam. For example, that Cloughaneely Marching Band from Donegal was pretty darn cute and irresistable. The Philadelphia Emerald Pipe Band looked so sharp in green tunics and saffron kilts. And dancers … hey, we just had to squeeze off a few frames of dancers. And what’s a parade in Philadelphia without a couple of blocks worth of music from a string band?

Relive the day with our video memories:

April 1, 2009 by