The San Patricio de Montreal Day parade began for the first time on Saint-Paul Street in 1824, and a couple of centuries later, this annual tradition is still strengthening.
“The story of the parade is really the story of Montreal,” said author and journalist Alan Hustak.
Last year, Hustak published A long Marvel line: 200 years of Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Parade. The book is immersed in the history of a parade that survived two world wars and two referendums, becoming a beloved and busy event every March, despite often frigid temperatures.
That first parade in 1824 had a different environment from modern times. Hustak told CBC All in a weekendWar veterans of 1812 “decided to meet for a party.”
The first decade was a mixture of Irish and French Canadian Catholics who were against British colonialism, Hustak explained.
From rich entrepreneurs meetings, to religious expression and Irish nationalism, we observe how the colorful history of the San Patricio Day Parade is the history of Montreal “as the event leads to its third century.
In 1834, the San Patricio Society was founded to help organize the annual parade. And in 1860, the community grew after half a million Irish immigrants reached Quebec.
“It began as an Irish nationalist manifestation, then became a more Catholic procession,” said Ken Quinn, historian of the United Societies of Montreal.
It was an activity of men in those early days, Quinn said in CBC Montreal’s Come on. They were proud of their Irish roots and thought it was time for them to show it publicly.
Hustak said that each parish had a parade at one time and that the parishes even fought with each other who had the right parade.
Montreal’s parade is greater than Dublin’s
While the parade evolved in Montreal for decades, the first official San Patricio Day Parade in Dublin did not take place until 1931.
“In general, it is not a native of the island of Ireland,” said Emer O’Toole, professor of Irish studies at the University of Concordia.
“It was originally a military tradition of Protestant unionist regiments to commemorate the day of the patron saint of their homeland.”
San Patricio Day in Montreal along Ste-Catherine Street in 1920
Today, the parade is associated with the use of Green, a more nationalist symbol, O’Toole said.
“One of the best things in the parade, in my opinion, is that it moves from a strictly religious observation to this great diverse festival that is really a spring rite in Montreal,” said Hustak.
This year, the 200th parade is March 16, after De Maisonneuve Boulevard between St-Marc and St-Ubrain streets from noon to 3 pm
Canceled 4 times in 200 years
The parade was canceled at least four times over the years. In 1878 it was because the Pope died. In 1902, it was because a pastor from Montreal died.
More recently, it was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic. So 200 years have passed since 1824, but it was not necessarily celebrated every year.
“Maybe we are not so good in mathematics, but we certainly determine that this is the year we will celebrate the 200 of the parade,” said Quinn.
In 2022, there were no floats and only a fraction of the participants in the event was included, since the organizers worked to re -route the tradition.
In 2023, thousands of assistants to the green covered parade were cheering from the bulge of what was promoted as the 198th edition of the parade. He returned to life, stretching about two kilometers down Ste-Catherine West Street.
Danny Doyle is the Grand Marshall for this year’s parade. He grew up in a large Irish family in Griffintown, and remembers the days when the parade was almost as a military with the participants marched on the street.
The parade has become one more party over the years, with dozens of political organizations and leaders. This year, there will be more than 120 groups.
“It is obviously an Irish tradition, but I think it has now become more a commercial parade of what it was years ago with the parishes that handle it,” Doyle said. “It is more multicultural.”
