Irish parade on St. Pat's Day

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm's Irish side came out to play Sunday evening as locals sporting green and waving Irish flags gathered along Minnesota Street to either watch or participate in the city's annual St. Patrick's Day parade.

Marchers gathered near Third South and Minnesota streets around 4:30 p.m and began to organize themselves into three divisions. At the front of the parade was a New Ulm Police Department escort, followed by an American Legion color guard, followed by several local residents of Irish descent.

Small clusters of spectators spread along the entire parade route's sidewalks, many of them sporting green and gold Mardi Gras beads, handwoven Irish fisherman's sweaters, green plastic derby hats and shamrock stickers on their cheeks. They stood and applauded as the marchers strolled along, waving hello to a friend or coworker in the parade.

Rolland and Rosemary McGraw made their first visit to New Ulm's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Rolland said he usually marches in Franklin, where he lives. He said New Ulm's parade had an advantage over the one that took place in St. Paul on Saturday -- far less traffic.

"I was impressed," said Rosemary. "It had a nice variety of people. You had the Concord Singers and you had the little kids. It was a nice mix."

The weather remained calm and relatively warm for the parade, although the sky seemed overcast once the parade got rolling around 5 p.m.

Paraders traveled down Minnesota Street against the usual flow of traffic, continuing north for six blocks and ending at the Glockenspiel.

Marchers and parade-goers quickly dispersed among the three places in downtown New Ulm that were open on Sunday -- the Lamplighter, Rodney's Tavern and the Kasierhoff.

The three establishments experienced short rushes of patrons dressed in green, who generally ate lunch, had a few drinks, chatted for a while and then went home. Some of the after-parade crowd remained in the Wilhelmina Room at the Kasierhoff nearly two hours after the parade ended.

"It was steady for a while," said Heidi Stuebs, a hostess at the Lamplighter. "(The St. Patrick's Day crowd) was really nice."

Unlike parades in Minneapolis and St. Paul, New Ulm's St. Patrick's Day parade was held on March 17, the actual day of the holiday. City ordinances in the Twin Cities prevented parades from being held on Sunday.

But New Ulm was different.

Parade organizer William O'Connor said he was satisfied with the size of the parade's crowd, given the fact that it was held on a Sunday.

"It went very well considering it was on a Sunday," he said after the parade ended. "The business community was shut down, so that had an effect."

Irish parade on St. Pat's Day