Alas, no more green beer and shillelaghs on Washington Street in the square mile city of Hoboken, New Jersey. The Hoboken St Patrick’s Day parade, which occurred annually for the last 25 years on the 1st Saturday of March is now cancelled.
The NYC Irish calendar of March would (for the last decade), begin at the ‘Boken parade, then festivities would continue the following weekend at the South Street Seaport Irish Stroll for day-drinking with great views of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, and finally the Gaelic season would conclude at the 5th Avenue, New York City parade on the 17th of March (pictured above in 1907).
Here is a link to the Hoboken parade committee’s letter. It seems as though Hoboken’s City Fathers are fed up with the boozy shenanigans and rowdy house parties that occur, and the city is using safety as the main justification for cancelling the event. It is a shame that we can’t have nice things. There was always more than just inebriated revelry, there was a sense of tradition, and also a venue to hear Celtic music, drums, pipes, and witness folk dance that is being forgotten in our modern age. Also mentioned in the letter, (and for good or for bad) the parade may played a hand in the revitalization of Hoboken since its 1986 inception. Negative proof.