Historic 200th St. Patrick's Day parade ready to roll through Montreal

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 13, 2025 2:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade archetypal started connected Saint-Paul Street successful 1824, and a mates centuries later, this yearly contented is inactive going strong.

"The past of the parade is truly the past of Montreal," said writer and writer Alan Hustak.

Last year, Hustak published One Long Line of Marvel: 200 Years of Montreal's St. Patrick's Parade. The publication dives into the communicative of a parade that survived 2 satellite wars and 2 referendums, becoming a beloved, well-attended lawsuit each March, contempt the often frigid temperatures.

That archetypal parade successful 1824 had a antithetic vibe than modern times. Hustak told CBC's All successful a Weekend, veterans from the War of 1812 "decided to get unneurotic for a party."

The archetypal decade, it was a premix of Irish and French Canadian Catholics who were some against British colonialism, Hustak explained.

In 1834, the St. Patrick's Society was founded to assistance signifier the yearly parade. And by 1860, the assemblage grew aft fractional a cardinal Irish immigrants came to Quebec.

"It started arsenic an Irish nationalist demonstration, past it morphed into a much Catholic procession," said Ken Quinn, a historiographer with the United Irish Societies of Montreal.

It was an all-male enactment successful those aboriginal days, Quinn said connected CBC Montreal's Let's Go. They were arrogant of their Irish roots and they thought it was clip they displayed that successful a nationalist way.

Hustak said each parish had a parade astatine 1 constituent and parishes adjacent feuded with 1 different implicit who had the close parade.

Montreal's parade is older than Dublin's

While the parade evolved successful Montreal implicit decades, the archetypal authoritative St. Patrick's Day parade successful Dublin didn't instrumentality spot until 1931.

"In general, it's not thing that's autochthonal to the Island of Ireland," said Emer O'Toole, Concordia University prof of Irish studies.

"It was primitively a subject contented by protestant unionist regiments to commemorate the patron saint's time of their homeland."

WATCH | Footage from the St. Patrick's Day parade a period ago: 

Nowadays, the parade is associated with the wearing of green, a much nationalist symbol, O'Toole said.

"One of the large things astir the parade, successful my view, is that it's moved from a strictly spiritual reflection into this large divers festival that's truly a rite of outpouring successful Montreal," said Hustak.

This year, the 200th parade is connected March 16, pursuing De Maisonneuve Boulevard betwixt St-Marc and St-Urbain streets from noon to 3 p.m.

Cancelled 4 times successful 200 years

The parade was cancelled astatine slightest 4 times implicit the years. In 1878 it was due to the fact that the pope died. In 1902, it was due to the fact that a Montreal pastor died.

More recently, it was cancelled successful 2020 and 2021 due to the fact that of the pandemic. So it's been 200 years since 1824, but it wasn't needfully held each azygous year.

"Maybe we're not that large astatine math, but we surely determined this is the twelvemonth we'll observe the 200th of the parade," Quinn said.

In 2022, determination were nary floats and lone a fraction of participants were included successful the lawsuit arsenic organizers worked to get the contented backmost connected track.

In 2023, thousands of green-clad parade-goers were cheering from the sidelines of what was touted arsenic the 198th variation of the parade. It roared backmost to life, stretching astir 2 kilometres down Ste-Catherine Street West.

Danny Doyle is the Grand Marshall for this year's parade. He grew up successful a ample Irish household successful Griffintown, and helium remembers the days erstwhile the parade was astir military-like with participants marching down the street.

The parade has go much of a enactment implicit the years, with dozens of organizations and governmental leaders. This year, determination volition beryllium much than 120 groups. 

"It's evidently an Irish tradition, but I deliberation present it's go much of a commercialized parade than it was years agone with the parishes moving it," said Doyle. "It's much multicultural."