GRAND MARSHAL JAN GRIFFITH KEEPS THE ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE ROLLING SMOOTHLY
The grand marshal of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday will be a familiar face not only to marchers, but to regulars in the Irish folk scene.
The honor is going to Jan Griffith, who along with being on the parade committee for the last 25 years is the wife of longtime local Irish folk singer Terry Griffith. He was the grand marshal in 1999, which now makes them the first husband and wife to serve in that capacity, and while she’s on the street Saturday, he’ll be up in the announcer’s booth.
The couple first met at a music store in 1965 in their native Wheeling, W.Va. — “He was playing folk music and psychedelic rock, that’s how long ago it was,” she says — and planned to marry in 1969.
Then, she says, “He was drafted into the Army. We were to get married in the fall but moved it up to 15 days before he left. We had two weeks to pull a bare-bones wedding together.”
Rather than going to Vietnam, he was stationed in Korea, and when he returned, he took a job in sales and was transferred to Pittsburgh in 1973.
It was his next job at the immigration service that re-sparked his interest in Irish music. While he was working there in 1976, he received albums from The Wolfe Tones, who were playing a local show and sending proof that they were musicians.
“It brought back memories of songs his grandfather sang to him when he was a kid,” Ms. Griffith says.
Upon inserting some of that music into his repertoire, he began playing clubs like Murphy’s Pour House in Carnegie, often accompanied by Jan, who worked by day as an X-ray technician (both are now retired). It was before Irish music hit a new level of popularity in the ‘80s
“It became more popular when the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem became more known,” she says.
Mr. Griffith has been part of the local Celtic scene for years along with Mike Gallagher, Mark Guiser and Guaranteed Irish.
“I can’t say enough about the talent in Pittsburgh. We’ve been told we’re quite lucky here,” Ms. Griffith says.
Her title on the parade committee is organizer, making her responsible for managing the 23,000 participants. She also is a staff member with the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, which coordinates the Irish Dog Exhibit.
The parade, which dates back 147 years and has run continuously since 1950 (even during the Blizzard of 1993), commences at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Greyhound Bus Station at the intersection of Liberty Avenue and 11th Street, proceeding to Grant Street and the Boulevard of the Allies, with 185 marching units, bands, Irish dancers and Irish-heritage groups.
“There’s a certain protocol for the beginning of the parade with dignitaries, color guard and politicians,” she says. “The first third of the parade is all Irish-oriented.”
After that come the “Star Wars” and “Ghostbusters” characters, a band of pirates in the Renegades of the Rotunda and Three Rivers Buccaneers, Mott College Campus Clowns from Detroit, and a 6-foot cow.
“We find the weirdest things,” she says.
Miss Smiling Irish Eyes Queen for 2017 is Robinson Township’s Sydney Diulus, a senior at Duquesne University who is majoring in biology/pre-med and has studied abroad at University College Dublin. She has volunteered at Camp Erin Children’s Grief Camp, The Children’s Institute and at UPMC Mercy Hospital.
Members of the Miss Smiling Irish Eyes 2017 Court are Colleen Marie Bench and Megan Rohde.
Parade-goers and marchers should be aware that the city’s statute against consumption of alcoholic beverages in public spaces will be enforced, as always. Open beverages will be permitted in Market Square after 2 p.m., when the family-oriented parade activities switch over to the Market Square Association’s Irish Fair in the Square.
Parade-goers who want to get into the spirit of the event can find The Shamrock Shammy (a green towel to wave) and an official parade T-shirt at vendors including Definitely You in Brentwood, Yinzers in the Strip District and the VisitPittsburgh retail store at 120 Fifth Ave., Downtown. A portion of the proceeds is directed to The Irish Society for Education & Charity, Inc., the nonprofit parent of the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Parade Committee.