Bergenfield St. Patrick’s Parade has name recognition
“A name that a shame never has been connected with.”
That’s Harrigan — according to the old George M. Cohan song. Though it might just as easily be Murphy, Kelly, O’Brien, Ryan, Byrne, O’Connor, Walsh, O’Sullivan, McCarthy, Doyle — the 10 most common Irish surnames, according to IrishCentral.
Names — no less than music, poetry, shamrocks and soda bread — are part of the Irish legacy in this country. And rest assured that those names will be well represented at the 42nd Annual Bergen County St. Patrick’s Day Parade, kicking off 2 p.m. on Sunday March 10 in Bergenfield, hosted by the city’s Council of Irish Associations of Greater Bergen County.
“You just run into so many people growing up named Murphy,” said Brian Murphy, one of this year’s parade marshals. “Everyone would always ask me if I was related to this Murphy, or that.”
This year, once again, the parade will launch 2 p.m. from South Washington Avenue and East Englewood Avenue in Bergenfield.
This year, again, it will travel north up Washington Avenue for one mile, ending up at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church. (You can watch the parade in person, or live on northjersey.com/watchparade, where we will livestream it. There’s also a QR code with this story that will take you right to the video).
And as always, the fun and music will continue afterwards at Tommy Fox’s Public House on South Washington Avenue.
Once again, you’ll see green derbies, green bowties, green beer, green hair, green costumed leprechauns, green-accessorized dogs and babies.
Once again, there will be vintage cars ahh-OOO-gah-ing down the street, courtesy of Restored Rusty Relics Antique Auto Club.
Once again there will be the grand old tunes — “Garryowen,” “Dawning of the Day,” “The Minstrel Boy” — played by the grand old masters: the Bergenfield High School Marching Band, The New Milford High School Marching Knights, The River Dell Marching Band, The Dumont High School Marching Band, Rockland County Firefighters Pipes and Drums, Tri-County Irish War Pipe Band, Bergen County Firefighters Pipe Band, Clan Na Vale, Fusion Core, Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen County, The Bergen Irish Pipe Band, and Ninemile House.
Once again, newcomers will mingle with the old lineup: The Academy of the Holy Angels Gaelic society from Demarest, and the Ramapo Saints Youth Hockey Club. And leading the parade, a brand new set of grand marshals: Sally and John Roche of Bogota.
And once again, there will be the names. Always, the names.
Storied names
Irish names have history, tradition, and pride — above all, pride — connected with them. They are names of places, names of saints, sometimes translitera