Sun Shines On Sunnyside's St. Patrick's Day Parade
BY THOMAS COGAN

Council Speaker Quinn along with Mayor Bloomberg addressed parade participants and viewers prior to the parade. Photos Luis Rocha

The weather was perfect for the seventh annual St. Patrick's Parade for All in Sunnyside, moving parade organizer Brendan Fay to make a little easy word play. "We're in Sunnyside and the sun is on our side today," he announced from the bed of a truck parked at the parade starting point, Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street. The truck bed supported a few politicians for a while before the parade got started, and also the Irish band Da Jimbe for the entirety of the festivities, the latter doing much the greater service if crowd reactions were any indication. It also supported the four McCourt brothers, Malachy and Frank being those of show business or literary renown. The fine weather allowed for a slightly longer program, everyone assured that no threat of rain would push the schedule of events to an early completion. Politicians and the McCourts talked, and in the street a troupe of children from a school in The Bronx did step dancing and other routines, under the tutelage of their Irish teacher, and then at last the marchers and musicians began to make their way up Skillman, headed for their destination at Woodside Avenue and 61st Street.

The Irish band Da Jimbe entertained parade onlookers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg again appeared, proudly saying that it was his fifth straight year at the parade, matching his years in office; and he even promised to attend after he has left City Hall and become just a person with an office building named after him. Making her first appearance was City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Also attending for the first time were Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Councilmembers John Liu and David Weprin. Beside the mayor, several other returnees included city Comptroller William Thompson, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Congressmembers Joseph Crowley and Anthony Weiner, Assemblymember Michael Gianaris and Councilmembers Eric Gioia, Tom Duane and Helen Sears. The mayor mentioned two Irish names, those of Senators John McCain and Edward (Ted) Kennedy, in promoting their immigration bill, one that could affect (among others) undocumented Irish workers in this country, said to number 40,000. Quinn noted that she is a lesbian in alluding to the parade's now-traditional inclusion theme. She said that the day before, she and the mayor had marched in a St. Patrick's parade in the Rockaways, so perhaps a series of smaller marches may be building while the big one, the March 17 parade on Fifth Avenue, continues to forbid any marchers who openly assert themselves as gay or lesbian. She also related that one of her grandmothers came to the United States on the R.M.S. Titanic and was known thereafter as "the last person on the last lifeboat."

Marchers included, Congressmember Crowley, Assemblymember Gianaris, Councilmembers Weprin, Gioia and Speaker Quinn.

Frank McCourt and Ellen Duncan, one of the founders of the parade, might have wanted to register a little disagreement with the mayor when they took up schooling issues. Duncan said, "Let's stop testing and start educating our children!" and McCourt, who made a career of teaching in the city's schools before publishing Angela's Ashes and two other autobiographical books, said that teachers are "underorganized and underpaid."

The Sunnyside Drum Corps and the All-City High School Marching Band stepped lively during the parade.

The parade, with the Sunnyside Drum Corps near its head, went up the avenue past many observers of many nationalities. The only noticeable protest came from a small group that silently held up signs deploring sodomites and stating, "Stop blaspheming Our Lord now."

At the far end, the musicians, the dancers, the organizations and groups that chanted against President George W. Bush and in favor of Palestine, telescoped together, blew a few last notes and ended the St. Patrick's Parade for another year.

Marching and performing in the parade were the Keltic Dream Irish Dancers from P.S. 59, at Bathgate Avenue and 182nd Street in The Bronx, Though Irish in name and affiliated with a school whose principal is named Christine McHugh, the Keltic Dream Irish Dancers roster these days does not include many, if any, Irish-Americans. However, their teacher, Caroline Duggan, who is from Ireland, has helped them to adapt charmingly to step dancing and other Irish measures. Duggan, who said she is a music teacher, has been working with the children on their dancing for three years, teaching them after school in two-hour lessons each Wednesday and Friday.

This past Sunday, the kids followed Duggan's lead in a series of routines before the parade began, and then made the march with everyone else. Duggan said that she's trying to raise funding so they can take a trip to Ireland, where they'd surely be a hit. At the moment, however, their travel is limited. They did not appear in the Rockaways parade on Saturday; and as for March 17, Duncan said no, they won't be marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade but will instead be performing in a celebratory program at P.S. 59.