March is Irish Heritage Month, and Brooklyn Daily Eagle is taking a look at how Irish Americans are paying tribute to their cultural heritage and identity. Saint Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century. The Brooklyn Eagle recognizes that the borough hosts more than one St. Patrick’s Day Parade and profiles here the oldest, founded in Park Slope as the Irish-American Parade, later called the Brooklyn Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. The parade originating in Bay Ridge centered around St. Patrick’s Church began about 30 years ago and will be the second profile in this series.

The Brooklyn Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Park Slope

50 years ago, as the United States was preparing to celebrate its bicentennial, a group of Irish Americans — Kaye Brideson, Kathleen McDonagh, Joan McLaughlin, Richard Henry, Ann McAvey, Peter Heaney and John Carroll — got together and founded what is now known as the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade Committee. The parade’s mantra, “Faith, History, Tribute and Remembrance,” pays homage to the countless contributions of Irish immigrants and the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn at The Old Stone House when the heroic Maryland 400, a group of Irish Americans, bravely fought off two thousand British and Hessian troops. 

Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade co-founder John Carroll immigrated to the United States in the late 1940s from County Galway in Ireland, and Assemblymember Robert Carroll, John Carroll’s grandson, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade showed that Irish Americans were part of the fabric of America.

“It is a parade about people who came to this country who wanted to show that they had a sense of belonging, that they had both political and economic power, and wanted to share their cultural values,” Carroll said. 

For the Carrolls, the parade was a family affair. Carroll’s father, also named John, was the parade’s announcer in the 90s. The assemblymember recalled that it was “a very big deal” to march in the parade while growing up.  

“[The parade] is this great, great event that I have really deep, fond memories of as a young person, and [I] know so many people who loved it and still love it,” said Carroll, who also took Irish step dancing lessons as a youngster. 

Carroll played an instrumental role in allowing LGBTQ+ Irish Americans to march in the parade. He recalled that in 1999, members of the Lavender and Green Alliance, a group of gay Irish Americans, were arrested for attempting to block the parade because they were denied permission to march.

“My father tried, at the time, to see if there would be a compromise to allow people to march. When there wasn’t, he stepped back from the parade at that point. When I was elected to the State Assembly, I thought it was really important that we figure out a way to make the parade inclusive,” Carroll elaborated. 

Carroll joined forces with Martin J. Cottingham and the co-founders of the Brooklyn Irish LGBTQ+ Organization (BILO), Lisa Fane and Matt McMorrow, in the fight for inclusivity. After lengthy discussions with the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade Committee, BILO became the first LGBTQ+ group to march in the parade with its official banner in 2019. 

“The thing that is so great about the St Patrick’s Day parade, though, is not about being Irish American. It’s really an embodiment of New York’s values and American values,” Carroll said. 

The decade-old ban on allowing LGBTQ+ groups to march under their banner was all the more puzzling because Park Slope is one of the most progressive areas in New York City and, in the 90s, had a large lesbian community who raised their kids in the family-friendly neighborhood. 

Lisa Fane told Brooklyn Daily Eagle in a phone interview that when the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade organizers allowed the Lavender and Green Alliance to march in the “big” parade in 2016 for the first time, the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade stood out like a “sore thumb” for its refusal to allow LGBTQ+ groups participate in the parade. 

Fane recalled that the first time BILO officially marched in the parade was the “most joyful experience.”

“People were over the moon and really, really supportive. The parade was inclusive and made it more joyful,” Fane said.

Martin J. Cottingham is this year’s grand marshall, which Cottingham described as a “tremendous honor.” Cottingham, president of the Irish American Building Society and Great Irish Fair chairperson, said allowing LGBTQ+ groups to march in the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade was long overdue. 

“If you truly want to be inclusive, which the Irish are, everybody should be included if you want to celebrate Irish culture and Irish heritage. It was long overdue that members of the [LGBTQ+] community were included in the parade, in my opinion,” Cottingham said. 

Cottingham pointed out that the parade through Brownstone Brooklyn was a great opportunity to bring together different generations and new community members. 

“It’s one day when everyone, I would hope, feels welcome and included,” said Cottingham.

Mary Hogan, co-chair of the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that celebrating 50 years was something to be proud of. 

“I think it’s a huge accomplishment that in this day and age where everything is so disposable, it comes and goes, to be around for 50 years and have continued support from some of the same groups,” Hogan said.  

Hogan, who has been on the committee for 25 years, pointed out that honoring Irish culture was also an opportunity to teach new generations about the many contributions Irish Americans made to New York City and the United States.

“My great grandparents came over to this country in the 1880s, and they didn’t have a lot, but they worked and worked, and each generation gets a little better, and it is important to teach the future generations,” Hogan said. “You walk around New York, and you see so many things that the Irish had a hand in, and people don’t realize it. [The Irish] went through a lot of hardship and hard work. But this country gave a lot to the Irish.”

Hogan emphasized that the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade wasn’t a neighborhood parade but a borough-wide parade that included Irish Americans from across the Borough. Even though some of the parade revelers and supporters have left New York City, they return every year to partake in the festivities — like this year’s honoree, Deidre Brennan Pritchard, who moved to Texas — giving the Parade the feel of a family reunion.

“The parade itself physically takes place in Park Slope, but it’s actually a Brooklyn parade because our honorees come from all over Brooklyn. It’s truly a Brooklyn parade,” Hogan said. 

The Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade is on Sunday, March 16, and the festivities kick off at Bartell Pritchard Square with the 9/11 Rededication Ceremony at 1 p.m., followed by the parade at 1:30 p.m. 

Parade revelers can cheer on the pageantry of bagpipes, marching bands, Irish dancers, antique cars and community groups along the parade route from 15th Street to Seventh Avenue to Garfield Place, up to Prospect Park West, and back to 15th Street.