St. Patrick's Day Parade - The History, The Grand Marshalls

The St. Patrick's Day Parade is this Saturday, Noonish. Fun, free family entertainment and a tribute to our Irish community. Also, it takes between 40 and 60 volunteers to roll this bad boy, so, if you have some time to spare and enjoy having fun and perhaps imbibing whence the work is done with some great folks, please show up at Home Plate Bar & Grill at 9:00 a.m., or click this here e-mail link to submit yourself online. Otherwise, load up, bring the kids and enjoy the fun. The parade will start at noon and should last for about two hours. There should be approximately 150 entries in this years parade!

History Lesson (condensed version):

The first St. Patrick's Day Parade was held in the 1880's in "Irish Town", specifically near St. Patrick's Church on Harrisburg. The original route ended at Market Square (where the pubs were) and in particular, at Dick Dowling's "Bank of Bacchus" bar. The Parade went on hiatus, or sabbatical with World War I and continued through the Great Depression and World War II. Once Glen McCarthy, local oilman, erected The Shamrock Hotel in the 1940's - it was "on" and The Shamrock became a center of Irish culture and the Parade was back, (yet another grand Houston landmark, felled by the wrecking ball). Houston has held a St. Patrick's Day Parade on 50 occasions, of record - Saturday's is the 51st. For the full history of the parade, the wonderful people who have kept it going and past Grand Marshalls, please click this link.

The Grand Marshalls

This year's Grand Marshall's are the Carr Brothers. David, Billy and Michael Carr are Irish-American Native Houstonian's who have a family history of giving to the community. Their family has been dedicated to helping the down-trodden, supporting the Irish community and raising monies for the following efforts:

Committee Ten, which worked to bring Protestant and Catholic children from Ireland to live in Texas.
Family Time Crisis Center
The Irish Society
The St. Patrick's Day Parade
The McBride Principal
The Irish Stew Cook-Off
St. Patrick's Open Golf Tournament

The Carr Brother's owned Mama Hattie's Hamburger Restaurant and Irish Pub (named after their great-grandmother) and can been found around and about playing bones and bodhrans at most Irish music events. They have provided meeting space for the Ancient Order of Hibernians and practice space for Paul Tynan's Irish Dancers and are members of the 100 Club supporting the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Irish Society. These gentlemen have dedicated themselves to perpetuating peace in Northern Ireland and fostering Irish heritage here at home.

This year's parade is also dedicated to the memory of "Bold" Michael Davitt, Arthur Gordon Mason and Tammy Long McQuillen.

Tonight, the Irish Queen will be selected at Griff's on Roseland at 7:00 p.m., swing on by!

Watch Great Day Houston on Friday morning - it's all Irish with interviews, music and Irish dancers!