St. Patrick’s Day Parade: Chilly Weather, Hot Politics, Families
A cool and blustery St. Patrick’s Day marked the first parade for the newly installed Archbishop Ronald Hicks and the first parade since Zohran Mamdani was installed as mayor in January. There were pubs, family reunions and politics too in the 265th annual parade.
| 18 Mar 2026 | 12:49
Precisely at 1 p.m., all 120 marchers and hundreds of thousands of spectators turned south to where the Twin Towers once stood to observe a moment of silence for the 2,700 who died on 9/11, 2001. The only other time the commemoration was performed was the first parade after 9/11 in 2002. (
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Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose family hails from County Kerry, took some time off from budget negotiations to march up the avenue with NYS Attorney General Letitia James. (
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The cathedral is filled to capacity as Archbishop Ronald Hicks delivers his first St. Patrick’s Day sermon, in which he urged Irish-Americans to extend a hand to new arrivals. (
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The McCourt family (from left) Patti McCourt, Christian McCourt and his mom, Melissa McCourt (red coat) all flew in from Port St. Lucie, FL. “It’s really cool,” said Christian and we assume he meant the parade and not the weather. (
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Family affair at Langan’s on W. 47th St. Back row: Kevin Clarke, Sean Duffy and his brother John Duffy. Sean Kids in front row brothers Emmet (left) and Desmond Clarke. (
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Amanda Brown from New Windsor, NY, gives a lift up Fifth Ave. to her son Cameron, who waves two tri-color flags. (
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Archbishop Ronald Hicks greets grand marshal Bob McCann at the foot of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on March 17, 2026 (
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Since the first parade after 9-11, the FDNY has marched with 343 flags, symbolizing the number of firefighters who died that day nearly 25 years ago. (
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani (sash) heads up Fifth Ave. with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch (waving at you!) and in red hat, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the newly appointed co-chief chaplain of the NYPD. (
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How am I doning? Sean Lane (left) Chairman of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Foundation, confers with Archbishop Ronald Hicks, who presided over his first St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 17. (
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Cardinal Timothy Dolan gets an exuberant welcome from spectators at the foot of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. For the first time in 17 years, Dolan is a passing marcher, rather than the chief greeter. (
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Archbishop Ronald Hicks greets the press with Grand Marshall Bob McCann at the foot of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on March 17, 2026. (
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The color guard of the Fighting 69th Regiment, with its Irish wolf hound mascot, is the first unit to head up Fifth Ave. at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The regiment traces its roots to the American Civil War. (
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The reigning Rose of Tralee is Katelyn Cummins (right) who is joined by the New York Rose, Billie Cooper, who is working on her masters at Columbia and living in the East Village. (
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The cold weather meant the grandstand was a little sparse as the parade wore on, but spirits were still high especially when this Rose of Tralee spotted a friend from home among the spectators. (
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The woman in the white scarf said her mother came from Donegal and settled in Brooklyn in 1927. The extended family has been coming every year gathering behind a banner proclaiming them as the “Half-Mad McLaughlins.” (
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With temperatures not cracking 40 degrees and a strong wind blowing, the crowds along the sidelines of the 265th St. Patrick’s Day parade were lighter than usual, but the weather did not dampen the the good spirits or the political intrigues which seem to crop up every time the Irish gather.
One of the most dramatic moments on the parade route came precisely at 1 p.m. when the 120,000 marchers halted all along the parade route and faced south where the Twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood to commemorate the 2,700 who died that day in 2001 with a moment of silence.
A lone piper from the FDNY Pipes & Drums began a slow wailing tune of “Amazing Grace.” Spectators soon joined in as a sense of rare quiet enveloped the 1.5 mile parade route from 44th St. to 79th St. And then the march resumed, a spirited parade which began before there was even a United States and today attracts people from across the country and across the globe.
Before that dramatic pause, there were many political intrigues as there always seem to be at Irish events. Question number one was whether Mamdani was even going to attend. Press invites to the traditional early morning breakfast at Gracie Mansion did not go out until the day before and journalists were told no photographs were allowed and that they had to respond by 10 p.m. the night before.
And there were questions about whether he would march and attend the pre-parade Mass. He had broken protocol once before when he skipped the induction ceremony for Archbishop Ronald Hicks on Feb. 6, which rankled some Catholic New Yorkers. The New York Post pointed out that there was not a single Catholic on the mayor’s transition team.
But Mamdani, appeared to be trying to make amends with Catholics released a video extolling the hundreds of years of struggle and mentioning the ten IRA hunger strikers who fasted unto death in 1981. But he generate a controversy in some circles when he likened the Irish struggle to the Palestinian struggle. “Who can better understand those who weep than those who have weeped,” he asked.
In terms of attendance, he pulled a trifecta, aside from the 7 a.m breakfast which honored former Irish president Mary Robinson, he attended the 8:30 a.m. Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where he sat in the front row with Robinson to his immediate left and Grand Marshall Bob McCann next to her. He then marched up Fifth Ave with the NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and the newly installed co-chaplain of the police department, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who remains a popular figure in the archdiocese.
Archbishop Hicks, who is not seen as conservative as his predecessor Cardinal, gave a low key but uplifting sermon. He downplayed the minor flap from Mamdani’s remarks. “We’re both new and we’re doing the best we can.”
During his sermon, Hicks asked Irish-Americans, who had to battle for everything when they began arriving in the mid-19th century, to extend a helping hand to today’s migrants.
”Will we remember our own story?” he asked during his sermon. “Will we welcome others as our brothers and sisters. Will we cast our nets widely just as Christ asked us to do?”
Hicks one flub was minor, near the end of the Mass he said he wanted to thank the Grand Marshal, Bob McKenna. Someone must have whispered in his ear that the he had mangled the surname and he issued a quick correction. “I’m at that age where I need my glasses to read the fine print. It’s Bob McCann.” By the time City Council member Virginia Maloney, council speaker Julie Menin and Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal and others had reached the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Hicks had slipped off his purple bishop skull cap and replaced it with a bright green wool hat.
Hicks said he only visited Ireland once about a year and ahalf ago and said he experienced only about “15 minutes of sunshine” but said “the Irish people were great.”
As Virginia Maloney made her way to St. Patrick’s, we inquired who had taken over the city council’s Irish caucus role that was once held by her predecessor Keith Powers. She responded, “I’m the co-chair with Joanna Ariola,” a Republican who represents Ozone Park and part of the Rockaway Peninsula.
McCann is not a born and raised New Yorker either. He started in Pittsburgh and only came to New York when he began working on Wall Street, first as the head of wealth management at Merrill Lynch and then as chairman Americas of UBS. “I came her in 1982. I thought I’d stay for a year or two and ended up staying for over 42 years,” he told Straus News. “It changed my life.” Today, he owns the Forest Creek Gold Club in North Carolina and last year was elevated to chairman of the Irish Arts Center.
While the crowd was lighter than in past years, it was no less spirited.
”It’s our first time here,” said two women who were living in England, but grew up on the Falls Rd., in Belfast at a time when it was a flashpoint in the IRA’s clash with the British over who should rule Northern Ireland. Asked which side they were on, they responded, “the right side.”
Melisa McCourt said she flew in from Port St. Lucie, FL with her son Christian and her sister, Patti. Asked what he thought of the parade, Christian said, “It’s really cool.”
And of course there are pubs. At Langan’s on West 47th St. Sean Duffy, a bagpiper with the Co. Tyrone Pipes & Drums said he was also celebrating his St. Patrick’s Day birthday with his brother John and longtime friend Kevin Clarke and Kevin’s two sons Emmet and Desmond. “We’re the oldest pipe band in the northeast,” he said, as an early crowd began filling in at the saloon owned by Tipperary man Des O’Brien. “We came here for an Irish breakfast,” he said. “Usually the we play before we march and then come back, but this year we’re going off early. But we’ll be back after we march.”
A key part of the parade is the banners and marchers of the 32 counties and one of the biggest contingents is the one from County Kerry, which even with the cold weather stretched two city blocks. At the end of the Kerry marchers was a merry containing the various winners of the Rose of the Tralee, a talent show in the Co. Kerry city of Tralee which attracts participants across the Irish diaspora. The reigning New York Rose, is Billie Cooper, who is working on her masters at Columbia University. She grew up in the sleepy town of Ballyhaise, in County Cavan but is currently residing in the East Village.[That might explain why the entire Rose contingent ended p the East Village pub The Laurels on E. 14th St. the day before the parade.]
The reigning rose is Katelyn Cummins who grew up on a dairy farm on the Kilkenny/Laios border and is a third year apprentice electrician who plans to purse an electrical engineering degree. She capped off her August 2025 Rose win by winning Dancing with the Stars. “It’s my first time in New York” the 20 year star told us and not too surprisingly she said of the parade: “It’s great.”