Montrealers flock to 199th St. Patrick’s Day parade under sunny skies

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Montreal’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade attracted a good crowd beneath sunny skies and unseasonably heat temperatures on Sunday.

Revealed Mar 17, 2024  •  Final up to date 50 minutes in the past  •  3 minute learn

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The crowds lining de Maisonneuve Blvd. for Montreal’s 199th St. Patrick’s Parade weren’t fairly as deep as these pre-pandemic, however the occasion’s grand marshal mentioned what they lacked in numbers, they made up for in smiles and enthusiasm.

“Montreal has come alive once more,” mentioned Grand Marshal Michael Kennedy as he entered the reviewing stand. “COVID modified plenty of issues for lots of people. That is renewing us and bringing us again to what it was.”

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The parade began proper on time at midday on Fort St. and de Maisonneuve Blvd., with onlookers three or 4 folks deep all the way in which alongside the route. Building alongside Ste-Catherine St. compelled a change of route this 12 months, so the parade adopted de Maisonneuve Blvd. as a substitute, ending at Jeanne-Mance St.

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Kenneth Quinn, this 12 months’s “Irishman of the Yr,” congratulated parade organizers for drawing crowds and pulling off a well-attended parade regardless of current cancellations and the route change.

“Whenever you change the route, there’s all the time that uncertainty,” Quinn mentioned. “Is it going to fly with the gang? Is it going to alter the ambiance? However from begin to end there’s actually no gaps. There are lots of people on the road and they’re all pleased, and joyful with massive smiles on their faces. It’s great.”

Parade-goers sported inexperienced headgear of each selection, most adorned with shamrocks. There have been inexperienced prime hats and toques, inexperienced bowlers and baseball caps, inexperienced fedoras and newsboy caps. Significantly well-liked this 12 months have been these tiny derby hats that leprechauns put on, and hair bands with shamrock antennae.

The day began out chilly, beneath gray skies threatening rain. A number of parade-goers credited the “luck of the Irish” for the solar that got here out simply earlier than midday, warming temperatures to a excessive of 8 levels by 2 p.m. Many unzipped their inexperienced parkas and a few have been heard to complain of the warmth.

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About 95 totally different teams participated within the parade, some strolling and others using on floats. There have been marching bands, Irish dancing troops, firefighting items, rugby golf equipment, and teams representing media organizations, colleges, companies, church buildings, cities, social golf equipment and group organizations.

Alongside the parade route, dozens of languages could possibly be heard, though greetings of “Comfortable St. Patrick’s Day!” have been shouted primarily in English. This reporter heard folks chatting in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Cantonese in simply half a small metropolis block.

For Maurilo Borges, this range is what makes Montreal an amazing metropolis, and the St. Patrick’s Day parade is the annual occasion that finest displays that range.

“At house we converse Portuguese,” mentioned Borges, who got here to the parade from Brossard on the insistence of his two younger sons. “However at our church, we converse English, and yesterday we have been on the Planetarium and we talked to the folks there in French. Then we went to a restaurant and the man there spoke Spanish, so I spoke Spanish with him. I like that about Montreal.”

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Mayor Valérie Plante was all smiles as she walked the route in her vibrant emerald inexperienced coat, stopping to talk typically with parade watchers.

“The temper is unbelievable,” she mentioned. “It’s as a result of individuals are so pleased to be collectively. Yearly, we stay up for this parade. Every year, we’re all Irish. Montrealers love this occasion, like to be collectively. We’re sturdy. We’re resilient, and it’s been a troublesome 12 months. So each alternative now we have to collect like that is actually valuable and we really feel it.”

Though Sunday’s parade is being counted because the 199th, former Montreal Gazette reporter Alan Hustak, who has lately printed a guide chronicling the historical past of the parade, famous in an interview on CBC radio the occasion has been cancelled a handful of occasions, together with in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, since its beginnings in 1824.

mlalonde@postmedia.com

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