St. Patrick's Day in America and Ireland

Before doing my recent research on St. Patrick's Parades, I assumed, as I imagine that many people do, that the mother of all St. Patrick's Day parades must be in Ireland. In studying the history of the celebrations I learned that my assumption was incorrect.

In fact, the "original" St. Patrick's Day Parade was held in New York, 16 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed. The tradition of celebrating St. Patrick's Day parades began as a response to oppression. An English law forbid the Catholic's parades, but allowed a religious procession after Mass. So, on this technicality, the Irish Catholics got a permit for a church procession. The St. Patrick's procession would leave from the Cathedral after Mass. Therefore the original parades were actually an act of defiance.

While the parades have become an accepted part of the mainstream in the United States, historically, that has not been the case. There are several cities that started having parades in the early years, only to suspend them during times of hardship. The times of hardship included anti Irish sentiment, two World Wars and the Great Depression.

Up until the mid nineteenth century, the majority of Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. The 1845, the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland and close to a million poor, uneducated Catholic Irish started pouring into the United States. The Irish immigrants were despised when they first immigrated, and had trouble finding even menial jobs. They soon began to realize that their great numbers gave them political power and they began to organize. Their voting block became known as the "green machine". The St. Patrick's' Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans and a "must attend" event for politicians.