Hudson St. Patrick’s parade organizer hopes to reschedule
Popular Irish celebration postponed after province bans large gatherings
Like so many events and celebrations around the globe, the annual Hudson St. Patrick’s Parade has been postponed due to COVID -19 concerns.
“It’s not cancelled, it’s postponed,” said Jay de la Durantaye, president of the Soulanges Irish Society on Friday. “We’ve got to make sure that message is delivered.”
The Hudson parade will be rescheduled at a later date, he added.
“We’re looking for a secondary date, as soon as we get a release from the health minister ... and we’ll move on.”
The decision to postpone the 11th edition of the popular Hudson parade was made on Thursday after Quebec Premier François Legault announced the province was banning all public gatherings of more than 250 people in the province to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Obviously we’re disappointed, but everybody’s health is No. 1,” de la Durantaye said.
Putting the brakes of the Hudson parade followed the postponement of Montreal’s 197th annual St. Paddy’s Day parade, scheduled for March 22.
Montreal’s event, held annually since 1824, is one of the longest continuously running St. Patrick’s Day parades in the world. It’s been organized by the United Irish Societies of Montreal since 1929.
“It’s unfortunate for the Montreal parade,” de la Durantaye said. “They’ve gone through (the First World War) and (the Second World War) ... diseases in the early days, and they still (held the parade) as a sign of hope for everyday.
“And here we are, this crazy virus takes down a parade that’s run for 196 years.”
The Hudson, Montreal and Châteauguay parades join a growing list of cancelled and/or postponed Irish events in Toronto, New York City, Chicago, Boston and Dublin.
The Hudson parade is always held on a Saturday, preceding the Montreal event by a day. De la Durantaye said efforts will be made to hold the rescheduled events back to back, if possible.
“We’re obviously going to try and time it with Montreal when they do a hard reset, and we’ll go from there,” he said.
“We’re hoping to piggyback on them, but if not, we’re independent and we’ll do our own thing.”
Also postponed was Hudson’s Irishman of the Year Gala, originally scheduled for last Saturday. The 2020 Irishman of the Year honouree is Ken Doran.
The gala will be held at a later date, but de la Durantaye said rescheduling the parade is harder than postponing it.
“Cancelling or postponing is the easy part. Rescheduling everyone back again, especially the bands that come from out of town, is the only downside.
“We’ll also finish up our Irishman of the Year dinner that has also been delayed for obvious reasons,” said de la Durantaye. “Then we’ll pick a date for the parade and roll out the Irish festival down Main St. in Hudson in 2020.”
There are over 110 floats or entries in the Hudson parade, he noted.
“We’re one of the largest parades, in terms of entries, in all of North America.”
De la Durantaye said parade organizers are in no rush to get the parade rolling.
“The town supports any date we need to pick. We’re in a unique position; we don’t really have a timeline. We can pull this thing into gear and into motion at almost any time.
“It’s also going to be unique to run the parade (in warmer weather) with shorts on,” he said with a laugh “There is always a bright side to everything.”