After escaping slavery and devoting himself to the church, St. Patrick had a vision where the Irish called out to him, “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.” A foreigner in Ireland, he went across the nation converting the people to Catholicism, symbolically driving out the snakes. St. Patrick died on March 17, late in the 5th century. For well over a thousand years the Irish have celebrated him on the day of his death, with one of the most notable celebrations being the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City.

On March 15, 1762, The New York Herald had a small item, nestled amongst the destinations of recently ported captains and rewards for the capture of runaway indentured servants, announcing “The Anniversary Feast of St. Patrick is to be celebrated… at the house of Mr. John Marshall… Gentlemen that please to attend will meet with bess Usage.” Irish soldiers in a British regiment, home-sick for the Emerald Island, got together in the midst of “severe cold weather,” and marched to the feast. With that, they started what some report as the first St. Patrick’s Day parade; one that has continued annually, without interruption, ever since.

Future parades continued as British regiments with strong Irish contingents placed celebration notices in the city’s newspapers announcing that gatherings and toasts would be held at various taverns. These parades were marked with Green and Gold attire and, as the New York Mercury noted in 1766, the playing of “fifes and drums, which produced a very agreeable harmony.” The parades grew in size and scope, with the addition of marching bands, horses, and carriages. At the taverns, the participants would toast to the King and to the prosperity of Ireland.

As large numbers of Irish Catholics immigrated to America from 1820 to 1860, the parade broadened from a military procession to include participants from social and fraternal Irish organizations. In the 1850s, at the height of Irish immigration, the Irish were “begging on every street” and were largely scorned and ridiculed. Many of the Irish Catholics were in poverty, and the infamous “No Irish Need Apply” signs were being posted at workplaces across the city. In this atmosphere, the parade became a source of pride for the Irish and a representation of their strength. Political leaders sought association with the parade, while Irish social leaders would preach acceptance of the Irish Catholics. With parallels to immigration debates of today, in 1855 The New York Times quoted a social leader as saying, “George Washington… was an advocate of foreign immigration. In place of thinking it inimical to the interests of this country, he did all he could to encourage it. Nay, he went so far as to advocate and encourage ‘pauper immigration.’”

Despite this, tensions were building between the predominantly Protestant populace and the numerous Irish Catholics. In the same issue, The New York Times reported “one daily paper of the day had an article condemning the celebration of the day because Patrick was a Catholic saint…. While up the river… Patrick’s effigy was hung by the neck to a tree.”

Towards the mid 1860s, newspapers expressed the public’s fears that either Catholic Irish Nationalists, or interference from the Protestant Orange party, would cause the parade participants to riot. In 1866, The New York Times replaced its usual kind words about the Irish with: “Unlike the Germans, the French, the Spanish, in fact, every other foreign element of our population, [the Irishman] insists upon carrying the flags of double-nationality… He is always an Irishman, except on election day, when he is the fullest kind of full-blooded American, and sometimes discharges the duty of half a dozen American citizens by voting early and voting often.”

While all prior parades were peaceful and without violent incidents, in 1867 the tension broke and a serious fight between a social organization and the police left a score of officers seriously wounded. After a lambasting from the press (and likely many others), the social and fraternal organizations made a conscious effort to embrace the city populace, and encouraged the thought that on St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish. It took a generation for the trust to rebuild, but during that time the parade morphed into what we know now—a parade of pomp and music as seamlessly combined as the American and Irishman.