NYPD Chief Collins To Start The NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade

The New York City St Patrick's Day Parade Committee announced this week that Chief Michael Collins of the NYPD will blow the whistle that will start the 2008 Parade.

At 11 am on March 17th, Parade Secretary, Hilary Beirne will give the signal to Chief Collins to blow his whistle  that will start the 247th New York City's Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue.

The annual Saint Patrick's Parade has been held for the past 247 years in honor of the Patron Saint of Ireland and the Archdiocese of New York and celebrates Irish Faith, Heritage and Culture.

The Parade is reviewed from the steps of Saint Patrick's Cathedral by His Eminence Cardinal Edward Eagan, Archbishop of New York and numerous dignitaries from Ireland and the U.S.

Often regarded as the most popular parade in New York City, the Parade is the largest and most famous of the many parades held in the city each year and boosts of being the largest Parade in the world. It is the largest Irish celebration and the most famous St Patrick's Parade in the world. 

The Parade starts at 44th Street at 11 am and is held every March 17th except when March 17th falls on a Sunday when it is celebrated the day before, Saturday the 16th, because of religious observances.

The parade marches up Fifth Avenue past St. Patrick's Cathedral at 50th Street all the way up past the Metropolitan Museum of Art and American Irish Historical Society at 83rd Street to 86th Street, where the parade finishes around 5:00 pm

To this day, the St. Patrick's Day Parade remains true to its roots as a true marchers Parade by not allowing floats, automobiles and other commercial aspects in the Parade.

Every year the Parade Committee hosts about a quarter million marchers, along with many great bands; bagpipes, high school bands and the ever-present politicians in front of the approx 2 million spectators lining Fifth Avenue.

The Parade is televised for four hours on WNBC Channel Four to over half a million households in the US and will be web streamed for the first time this year.

For the past 158 years or so "The Irish Infantry" National Guard 69th Regiment have lead the Parade up Fifth Avenue, and they are followed by the various Irish societies of the city, the thirty two Irish county societies, and various Schools, collages, Emerald societies, Irish-language, and nationalist societies.