The first St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York took place 249 years ago, in 1762. The Parade, which marches up 5th Avenue, from 44th Street to 86th Street, is now a New York tradition, watched by more than two million people. It is the largest and most popular of the city’s many parades. The St Patrick’s Day Parade is held to honour the patron saint of Ireland and the Archdiocese of New York, and celebrates Irish faith, culture, history and heritage.
I was watching a documentary on the film director Mike Leigh recently. He saw Laurel and Hardy perform live in England when he was a boy. The main surprise he felt at seeing them in the flesh after having watched all those two-reelers over the years (over 100 between 1927 and 1950) was the discovery that they weren’t actually black and white people.
Clare Island was a well populated island between 1700 and 1845. The island was self-sufficient in the 1790’s and had sufficient food and fertiliser to meet the needs of the people. They leased and owned the land in common under the Rundale System. They tilled the soils using the lazy beds and they lived closely together in clusters or clachans that were common in the west of Ireland at the time.
