In the United States, the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has a very long history. First celebrated by our neighbors in Boston, Massachusetts, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade began as early as 1737. In the late 1700s, the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore followed suit. Next, parades started in St. Louis in 1810, and in San Francisco in 1850. The first New York parade was in 1766, and according to Hugh Augustine Aloysius Mulligan (Providence Journal, March 17, 1957), the day “was ushered in at dawn with fifes and drums,” and wound up in the late hours of the night, with the downing of 20 toasts.
On March 14 1971, Garrett D. Byrnes, a writer for the Providence Journal, wrote about the history of Providence’s celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. As long back as 1835, he shared that St. Patrick’s Day brought together a group of Irishmen at the home of the Rev. Mr. Constantine Lee. (Catholic priests were not referred to as ‘Father’ at this time.) They met midway on the pike between Providence and Pawtucket. Father Lee ministered to St. Mary’s in Pawtucket on his farm, O’Connellsville, whom he named in honor of the great patriot, Daniel O’Connell, who struggled so hard for the emancipation of the Catholic Irish from the British. The men who gathered at Father Lee’s to dine and toast “The day” the United States, the American Eagle, Irish Ladies, the martyred Robert Emmet, and The Church, were for the most part, textile printers from Donegal, who worked in Philip Allen’s Mill in the North End. Four years later, in 1839, the first public celebration of St. Patrick’s Day was held at the City Hotel in Providence.
In 1954, the Providence Journal described how Providence marked its first St. Patrick’s Day in 1839.
The first celebration of the festival of St. Patrick in Providence was held on March 18, 1839, as March 17th fell on a Sunday. At that time, the Irish population of Providence was only about 1,500, but was increasing rapidly. Many had come to Providence to help with building the railroad, and as it was realized what a beautiful home Providence had to offer, so many remained. Many people were attracted by the opportunities of the mills in Providence. The second grouping of immigrants included skilled mechanics, such as engravers, bleachers, calendars, weavers, and colorers, all who were employed in the print works. Many of these workers emigrated from County Tyrone, in the north of Ireland, where they learned their trade in the industrial section, which was experiencing a steady decline.
Providence’s first St. Patrick’s Day banquet was held in the City Hotel, on Broad Street, which was then located close to the Weybosset Bridge. About 120 people sat down at the festive board, which was presided over by Patrick O’Connell, a block printer by trade from County Dublin. It was reported that he conducted his duties that night with “much dignity and ability.” He was assisted by Henry J. Duff, another block printer, who was a leading spirit in the Irish community. William Kelley, a laborer and Jeremiah Baggot, who was from Limerick, Ireland, and had a grocery store on High Street, also helped. Several Englishmen, Scotchmen, and “Americans,” a generic term used by the Irish to describe Yankees, were also present.
When the dinner was over and the cloth removed, the local sons of St. Patrick got down to the real business of the evening: the toasts and the speeches, which they referred to as “the flow of wit and the feast of reason.”
The first speaker was Patrick O’Connell, the presiding officer, who with the long standing modesty of orators, started off: “In prefacing the first regular toast, I must acknowledge my utter inability to perform a duty so highly important, either to your satisfaction and mine…” Then he began his oration!
First, there were the regular toasts in the banquet pattern of the day, beginning with “The Day We Celebrate,” to which the reply came: “Consecrated to Erin’s faith, hailed by Irishmen, with a ‘Cead mile failte!’ (A hundred thousand welcomes). After that toast, the American Band, which was the Ed Fay Band of that day, broke out with their St. Patrick’s Day music. Toasts that followed were made to Ireland, to the United States, to Daniel O’Connell, the President of the United States, and to Tom Moore. After this final toast, P. Frederick White of Dublin, a friend of Moore and the melodist, who was on a highly successful concert tour of the United States, serenaded the group. His concert program was divided into two parts, one devoted to an account of the life of Tom Moore, and the other to the singing of Moore’s songs. When the applause died down, Mr. White stated: “I arise not for the purpose of making a speech,” and then proceeded to make a speech! Other regular toasts were dedicated to the governor of Rhode Island, the Bishop and clergy, the memory of Robert Emmet, and concluded, as was the custom, with a bow to The Fair: “Heaven’s masterpiece, earth’s brightest adornment,” a reference to the Irish heritage.
The volunteer toasts were now in order, with some individuals invited, and others “rising as the spirit moved them,” expressing a sentiment associated with the occasion or on a topic of the day. One of the toasts: “Beer a year old, roast beef, hot and cold; and a wife that will never scold —To every honest Irishman.” It’s a reply to the toast proposed to Philip Allen & Son, young Philip Allen, who was a guest, and they drank to “Ireland and Irishmen. May they forever prosper!”
The editor of the Boston Pilot, Patrick Donahoe, who had a soft spot for the local community, commented enthusiastically upon the first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Providence, saying, “The patriotic Irishmen of Providence cannot be surpassed by any in the country, in their devotion to the land of their adoption, and a love of the land of their birth.”
As the years went by, and more Irish settled here in Little Rhody, March 17th became an even greater occasion, and the parade was the best part of it. Providence held them very often, according to Garrett D. Byrnes (Providence Sunday Journal, March 14, 1971), until 1920.
There would be no parade in Providence upon the beginning of World War I, or as it also referred to as the Great War. In 1919, the last of the first series of St. Patrick’s Day parades in Providence was unlike any other. Over seven thousand Irish men and women marched, in addition to all of the band members. Those who turned out, did so to support the cause of Irish self-determination. Veterans of the war marched together in their military uniforms. The ten divisions that followed the veterans were made up of parish groups and parish organizations, and were organized on a regional basis. During this time period, financial concerns and the more popular alternative of having a dinner on St. Patrick’s Day caused a long pause in the tradition of parading.
Providence’s Current Parade Celebration
Planned and presented by Providence’s St. Patrick Parade Committee…
Don’t miss out on 2024’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day Parade, in Providence, on Saturday, March 9, 2024. This will mark another annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Providence, and as led by this year’s Grand Marshal, Dan McGowan, will begin at
12:00 Noon at Smith Street and Hilltop Avenue. The parade will proceed eastward on Smith Street and will end at the Rhode Island StateHouse.
Join in to show your appreciation and support of Rhode Island’s Irish population.
