400 YEARS ON, FLORIDA REVEALED AS BIRTHPLACE OF ‘SAN PATRICIO’ PARADE

ST PATRICK’S Day parties began in Florida more than 400 years ago – over a century earlier than previously believed, according to new research.

Contrary to popular belief, St Patrick’s Day parades didn’t start here until the 20th century. And Boston and New York have long laid claim to being the centres of Irish immigration that saw the start of parades in 1737 and 1762, respectively.

However, the origin of the parades, pub crawls and seas of green sweeping the globe today has been traced to a document for gunpowder expenditure in Spain.

The document discovered in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, revealed the first celebration occurred in 1600, with a parade in 1601.

A single entry in the log from March 1600 states residents of St Augustine – the oldest city in the US – gathered together and walked through the streets of the Sunshine State city in honour of the feast day of San Patricio, or St Patrick.

As they made their way through the town, cannons were fired from the wooden fort in celebration of the Irish saint.

While cannons and other artillery were often fired to help guide ships safely across St Augustine’s protective sandbar, they were also shot off during times of public celebrations and religious festivities.

Professor Michael Francis of the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, who uncovered the document, said: ‘It was certainly a surprise.

‘It did not register the first time I saw the name “San Patricio”, the Spanish name for St Patrick.’

Professor Francis said: ‘After a few seconds it actually hit me there was a St Patrick’s Day parade/procession in St Augustine in 1601.

‘Even more surprising was the document identified St Patrick as the patron saint of the city’s maize fields.’

He stumbled upon the records while exploring St Augustine’s long Spanish imperial history.