St. Patrick’s Irish Channel Parade

In 2020, the COVID pandemic shut New Orleans down on March 14th – just as local St. Patrick’s (Week) festivities were starting. The Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club‘s Irish Channel Parade was cancelled when the riders and walking krewes had already purchased thousands of silk flowers, beads, toys, and fresh cabbages, potatoes, carrots and Ramen Noodles – ingredients for stew. My family filled a closet with Irish Spring soap. Other had to deal with crates of Moon Pies and single-portions of Lucky Charms.

The 2022 parade may have included some recycled throws (and possibly stale cereal), but I was glad to see they also included the 2020 Grand Marshall & Colleen who never got a chance to roll and greet the city.

It’s been 3 years since we’ve gotten to line the streets to swap kisses (mostly on the cheek) for flowers and trinkets. The over-1400 walkers mostly wear black suits and/or kilts with green accessories. The parade also features double-decker floats, bagpipers and dancers like the green-afroed women of Alter Egos. The growing Braveheart Warriors Marching Club features wigged, blue-striped, plaid-kilted men.

It was wonderful spending a brisk but sunny day with a mostly local crowd and running into friends and neighbors like photographer and unofficial city ambassador, David Mora. After years of waiting for this parade to roll again, the city will be eating cabbage stew, grilled cabbage, cole slaw, stuffed cabbage, etc. for weeks.

For more history of the parade and its organizers, click here.