The Magic of Patrick in The City

If you ever want to go to Ireland without having to fly to Shannon, visit New York City on St. Patrick's Day. The place is loaded (no pun intended) with millions of Irish Americans.

Literally, 2,000,000 people line the streets to watch 150,000 marchers make their way up 5th Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral to 86th Street near Central Park. The parade last for more than 6 hours with roughly 4 hours of bagpipers filling the air with Irish anthems. Hours after the parade is over you'll think you are hearing bagpipes.

This year's parade was the 245th consecutive parade. For those without a calculator the first parade was in 1762! Almost 2 and 1/2 centuries later, and New York Irish still speak with a brogue.

SIDEBAR: Why did the chicken cross the road? To get away from the bagpiper.

Get into the city early and you can kick off the day with the Celebration of the Eucharist on the Feast of St. Patrick at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I went to the pre-parade Mass today with my friends Hillary Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and a few other local socialites. None of them said hello to me, but I forgave them all. The Cathedral was filled to capacity (3,000).

The Mass celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan was beautiful. Cardinal Egan is a gifted speaker. He gave a powerful homily echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah to challenge us all to awaken and help the less fortunate.

He also paid tribute to the New York Army National Guard's Fighting 49th. The troops were in attendance and had just come back from Iraq. It was amazing to see how many people shook their hand, patted them on the back or just said thank you. During the preparation of the gifts, the names of 19 brethren who died in Iraq were read. You couldn't help but be moved to tears.

I felt blessed to be in the house of God with so many people of good will. Slainte!