St. Patrick’s Day Parade Back On For First Time Since 2019

After a two-year, pandemic-induced hiatus — and with the city’s Covid numbers ​“going in a really good direction at this point” — New Haven’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is back on.

Mayor Justin Elicker and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro delivered that news Monday afternoon during a press conference on the second floor of City Hall.

Standing alongside nearly a dozen orange-white-and-green-sashed members of the city’s volunteer St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, Elicker said that that the city’s annual outdoor celebration of Irish-American heritage will take place this year, for the first time since 2019.

“This is one of the events that New Haven’s most known for,” he said. 

“Given the fact that Covid doesn’t transmit virtually at all when you’re outdoors … our team has assessed that it is safe to move forward” with the parade.

DeLauro said that New Haven’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade dates backs to 1842. She said it’s the oldest in New England, and the sixth oldest in the nation.

Now that the parade is officially on, she said, ​“I’m going to order my top hat and coat and tails, and grab my sash and shillelagh.”

The city has cancelled the annual parade for each of the past two years because of the pandemic. Elicker noted how the 2020 parade was one of the first major public events to be cancelled in the city as Covid first swept into New Haven in March of that year.

Since Covid is much less likely to spread outdoors, and as new infections continue to plummet as the Omicron wave subsides, Elicker said the city is less worried about outdoor gatherings like people gathering on the sidewalk to watch the parade.

He is still concerned about indoor gatherings, though, such as parade-revelers packing into bars. 

“We want to make sure that all of the restaurants and bars” follow the city’s current Covid-safety guidelines, he said. The city still has in place an indoor mask mandate. ​“We’ll have teams out just to make sure things are going well,” he said.

“Thankfully, the [Covid] numbers are going in a really good direction at this point.”

He also urged parade goers to celebrate ​“responsibly” by ​“not drinking too much, not overdoing it.”

Also at Monday’s presser were parade committee Chair Joanne Conlan and parade Grand Marshal Seamus Bohan.

Conlan said that the parade will take place on Sunday, March 13. It will start at 1:30 p.m. at Chapel Street and Sherman Avenue, and its route will head downtown and by City Hall.

Bohan, a retired former New Haven Fire Department captain, said that his father was on the parade committee that helped reinvigorate the annual celebration back in 1956. A host of family members have served as grand marshals, committee chairs, and honorary attendants for the parade over the years.

“We’re dug in really deep into this parade,” he said. ​“It truly is an honor and a privilege” to represent both the parade committee, and his family, in this annual city tradition.

Click on the video below to watch the full press conference.