Impromptu St. Pat’s parade held

Up the rebels.

The sound of bagpipes echoed through the darkness on Fifth Ave. as a small clan of hardy marchers did an Irish jig around the St. Patrick’s Day Parade cancellation with a stealthy Tuesday morning march through Midtown.

Smoke rose from the manholes and rain fell from the skies as the group strolled uptown in unison (above), making a small effort to continue the New York City tradition that dates to 1762.

Parade organizers memorialized the unannounced get-together with a video posted on Facebook and an Instagram photo showing about two dozen participants posed outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral behind a green, white and gold banner reading “St. Patrick’s Day Parade Fifth Ave. New York City.”

Members of the parade board of directors and its committee members gathered at 6:50 a.m. at the 69th Regiment Armory about 25 blocks south on Lexington Ave. before heading north, eventually moving to Fifth Ave. to follow the parade’s traditional route.

“We marched and preserved the history of the parade,” said a statement accompanying the Instagram post.

This year’s parade, the 259th edition of the annual March celebration, was shut down as the coronavirus crisis amped up in the days before March 17 — leaving the wearin’ of the green to the furtive group of early-morning revelers. The flashing lights of police cars were visible as the marchers walked along the empty parade route, and many of the participants clutched umbrellas to stay dry.

A six-minute video posted on the parade organizers’ Facebook page showed the marchers, sporting their tricolor parade sashes, walking merrily through the mist.