Riding in the St. Patrick’s Irish Channel Parade

Established in 1947, the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club‘s Irish Channel Parade features over-1400 walkers, mostly wearing black suits and/or kilts with green accessories, who swap kisses (mostly on the cheek) for flowers and trinkets. Also included are bagpipers, the green-afroed women of Alter Egos, and the wigged, blue-stripe-painted, kilt-wearing men of the Braveheart Warriors Marching Club. But the parade is best known for the dozens of double-decker floats throwing everything from beads to cabbages – and this year I was one of the people throwing!

House Floats Wrap-Up

This year’s Carnival season was much quieter this year. No parades with their marching bands and screaming crowds. No music venues packed with dancing patrons. Bourbon Street was closed. In fact, the French Quarter shut down liquor sales in the French Quarter for the final weekend of Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday. But New Orleans managed to make the best of a bad situation and came up with some fairly marvelous distractions. City Park created a drive-thru parade – Floats in the Oaks – as a safe way to see the floats, maybe catch a dance krewe, and relive some memories. I got to dance twice with my fellow Pussyfooters and it was pretty great being able to make people smile as they drove by.

But is was “Yardi Gras” that really gave the city something to smile about. Another socially distanced version of Mardi Gras, Yardi Gras turned thousands of houses and businesses throughout New Orleans (and as far away as Australia and Abu Dhabi) into parade floats.

New Orleans and Corona Virus

I miss New Orleans. I walk St. Charles and miss parades. The St. Patrick’s parade was cancelled well before the stay-at-home came. Then my favorite day of the year was cancelled, Super Sunday when the Mardi Gras Indians parade Central City in elaborately beaded and feathered suits they spent a year (and thousands) sewing. As the virus spread across the country and ravaged our state, in the city we retreated to our homes and looked for tips on finding toilet paper.

St. Patrick’s Parades 2019

The month of Carnival parades just ended on the 5th but we were back in the streets again ALL weekend starting with the Molly’s (Jim Monaghan’s) Irish Parade Friday in the French Quarter. The Pussyfooters were invited to join in the festivities this year and I love any chance to dance. The weather was awful, cold and rainy, but we were grateful for inclusion in the lively second line.

Saturday, we met family at the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club‘s Irish Channel Parade. The parade features double-decker floats, dancers and bagpipers but the heart of the Irish Channel parade is the many groups of walkers exchanging silk flowers for kisses (mostly on the cheek).

Irish Channel Parade 2017

The Mardi Gras parades just ended and already St. Patrick’s festivities have begun. Time again for floats and throws, dance troupes and walking krewes. The major difference is the occasion. And the green. Green beers, green wigs, green beads and glittery green beards abounded. Throws included Irish Spring soap, anything shamrock-shaped and fresh cabbages for soup.

We go to the parade every year but this year attended some of our friend’s parties as well. The spreads included Irish dishes along with crawfish and other local favorites.

Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Parade 2015

With the Mardi Gras Indians Super Sunday parade just hours away, I have NO time to write so I borrowed from a past post. Pardon the plagiarism. The Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club was established in 1947 and has held a mass and parade for over 60 years. I’ve been attending for 6 of those. Over 1400 (often drunk) walkers in black suits and green accessories (many in kilts) exchange silk flowers for kisses from the women and children on the route. Then floats pass tossing cabbage, carrots, Oodles of Noodles, pickles, Moon Pies,  Lucky Charms and Irish Spring soap in addition to the traditional throws of beads, toys and cups.

Irish Channel Parade 2014

The Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club was established in 1947 and has held a mass and parade for over 60 years. I’ve been attending for 5 of those, each year adding more trinkets to my costume and more recipes for the cabbage I catch. A friend of mine from college was visiting and it was her 2nd parade ever (her first was the Molly’s parade the day before). She arrived ready in a green shirt and green pinwheels spinning on her head. Not 24 hours in New Orleans and she was already getting the hint that nothing is “too silly” here.

St. Patrick’s Day – Block Party and Parade

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated citywide by Irish and non-Irish alike. The day starts with a block party. For years, the party was hosted by Parasol’s, an Irish pub, but after last year’s festivities, the bar sold and the former owners moved 2 blocks away, opening a new bar on Magazine Street – or rather, reopening an old family bar called Tracey’s. Unaffected by the confusion over old Parasol’s/new Parasol’s, old Parasol’s/new Tracey’s, the block party went on as usual.

St. Patrick’s Day

Yes, it was a Wednesday and, no, it wasn’t a holiday, but the festivities started at 11 am at Parasol’s annual block party.

Wear green, drink beer

In the 1830’s, construction began on the New Basin Canal. Many Irish immigrants were hired to work the project and settled into the dock area between the French Quarter and the Garden District, an area now called the Irish Channel.

The Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club was established in 1947 and has held a mass and parade for 60 years.