Get ready to go all green as the 26th annual Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade kicks off Saturday morning.
State Senator Chuck Mcilhinney will be the Grand Marshal for the procession celebrating Irish heritage and culture, a release from the parade committee said.
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The theme for this year’s parade is the beloved ballad “God Save Ireland.” The song commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the death of T.D. Sullivan, the author of the song’s lyrics, which became the unofficial anthem of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the release said.
Starting with mass at St. Joseph the Worker Church on New Falls Road in Levittown at 8 a.m., the parade will kick off at 10:30 a.m. in the area of the church. The parade will then move along New Falls Road towards Conwell-Egan Catholic High School in Fairless Hills, parade officials said.
Over 2,000 marchers will be participating in the parade this year. The marchers will include string bands, pipe bands, marching bands, Irish dancers, local law enforcement and emergency responders, veterans, local businesses, charitable organizations, St. Patrick himself, and much more.
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Parade viewers are asked to bring canned goods and non-perishable items that will be collected along the parade route by The Ancient Order Of Hibernians on behalf of their Hibernian Hunger Project.
A long time public official, Mcilhinney, now in his second term, represents parts of Bucks and Montgomery counties in the state Senate.
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When it was announced last month that Mcilhinney would be leading the parade, he said the parade will be a “good time.”
County commissioner Charlie Martin noted recently that Mcilhinney’s grandfather had a part in starting the Irish heritage parade.
The parade’s committee also hopes to continue to promote awareness within the local Irish-American community of Tay-Sachs disease, a deadly, genetic disease of the nervous system. Irish-Americans have a 1 in 50 chance of being a recessive carrier of this rare disease, and all those who claim Irish descent are encouraged to contact the National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association of Delaware Valley at 215-887-0877 or visit www.tay-sachs.org for more information.
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Complete details of the parade festivities can be found at the Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s Facebook page or at www.BucksIrishParade.com.
