Parkas and gloves the uniform for a frigid parade
MAHOPAC – Everyone in Putnam County was a little bit Irish on Sunday, in particular the hundreds upon hundreds of people who either marched in the 41st annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade or lined the streets to watch it.
Despite the 22 degree temperatures and stiff winds, the marchers carried on in what is billed as the third largest parade – behind Manhattan and Yonkers – with 82 units including marching bands, police and fire departments, civil servants, public officials, school and community organizations from across the Mid-Hudson.
This year’s grand marshal was Father Joseph Tierney, a former pastor at St. John’s Church in Mahopac, who currently serves as president of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx.
He called it a “pleasant and honor” to have been selected by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick to head the parade. “Mahopac was an important chapter in my life serving the St. John’s parish for six years in the 1980s,” Tierney said. “The people of Putnam County remain very special to me.”
