‘We’re going to blow the doors off downtown’
Meet Shaun Ruddy, the chair of the St. Patrick’s Parade Society. He marched in the city’s first parade in 1988 after it was banned for more than a century
When it comes to planning parades, Shaun Ruddy makes it look easy.
Ruddy, 64, is chairperson of the St. Patrick’s Parade Society, and has been organizing the city’s parade for the past eight years.
“Once you’ve done it a few times, it becomes simpler, but there’s always speed bumps along the way.”
The parade kicks off at noon Sunday at St. George and Bloor Street West, heads east to Yonge Street, then south to Dundas Street. About 5,000 participants are expected to march in it.
Ruddy’s history with the parade dates back much earlier than when he started chairing the organization behind it. He marched in the city’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1988 after the city had banned it in 1878 due to violence between Protestants and Catholics.
The 1988 parade, planned as a non-sectarian and non-political celebration of Irish history, customs and tradition, included dozens of marching bands, floats and carriages, and was attended by thousands.
The founder of the society, Steve Whelan, told the Star at that time that the celebration may have been about all-things Irish but that first parade’s success was because “all denominations built this. And on St. Patrick’s Day, we’re all very Irish, but first and foremost we’re all Canadians.”
Sean Moore, spokesperson for the St. Patrick’s Parade Society at the time, told the Star in 1988 how much it meant to have the parade back. “One hundred years ago, there were signs everywhere that said the Irish weren’t welcome,” he said. “We’re hoping it will give the Irish a catalyst, a focal point, for their heritage.”
In March 2020, the St. Patrick’s Day festivities were among the first events cancelled in the city at the onset of the pandemic. The parade returned in 2022.
This year, Brian Burke, former Toronto Maple Leafs executive and current Professional Women’s Hockey League Players Association executive director, is the Grand Marshal. The Toronto Police Service Mounted Unit will lead the parade and a 400-member-strong Toronto Fire Services pipes and drum band will be behind them.
There will be contingents from Ireland, Japan and Mexico, a Philippine heritage band, and a Ukrainian marching band.
The Irish government recognizes Toronto’s parade as the most inclusive worldwide. “We’re proud of that,” Ruddy says. “That’s not an accident, either. It’s been like that since ’88.”
Ahead of parade day, Ruddy was joined by volunteers at the Queen Elizabeth building at Exhibition Place to assemble and decorate dozens of floats and paint banners — green being the prominent colour.
“We’re scrappy,” Ruddy says. “The parade is an example of true volunteerism, and we like what we deliver. There’s a small, tight, efficient team of organizers who are great.”
It’s also not just seasonal work for the team. Ruddy and the St. Patrick’s Parade Society, a not-forprofit organization that hosts Irish events in the city, are on the lookout for new sponsors and securing permits all year round. Not long after each year’s St. Paddy’s Day festivities wrap, the team begins preparations for the next year.
Ruddy’s a natural organizer with a soft spot for others. He has owned and operated numerous bars and restaurants in the city and is currently in the process of converting a former pancake house at 180 Eglinton Ave. E. into the Harp Tavern, an authentic Irish pub, with business partner Gavin Quinn.
“It sounds corny,” Ruddy says, “but I like people.”
On parade day Ruddy will be up and out the door early, and won’t stop until well after the parade winds its way through downtown.
First, he’ll help set up things at the end of the parade route at Yonge and Dundas with a handful of volunteers, before heading north to the Fortunate Fox, an Irish pub in the Kimpton Saint George hotel in the Annex for the official parade breakfast, a ticketed event attended by dignitaries and foreign visitors. This year, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin will be in attendance.
After a traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage, Ruddy will be off to St. George and Bloor where the parade starts.
He’s confident this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade will be grand.
His voice shakes a little when he admits, “Every year, when that first pipe band strikes up, I get a tear in my eye.
“We’re going to blow the doors off downtown Toronto.”