This St Patrick's Day marks the first time I got to see the NY St Patrick's Day Parade. I was expecting a lot of this- pro- Irish sentiment from the Derry crowd, who have had to endure their own version of Irish parading for so many years...
Instead, what I found was mostly an overwhelming show of POLICE and FIRE- what are essentially pro-authority GOVERNMENTAL groups. What happened to the traditional Irish distrust of authority, the Irish belief that power corrupts? When all the Irish moved to New York, did they become the authority that they had been unable to attain in their own country? It made me think about the original St Patrick, himself (like many Irish) a slave in his own homeland, brought to a new land, and became a saint.
Judging from today's turnout in the parade, if St Patrick were reincarnated as an Irish expatriate to New York he would have ended up as either a cop, fireman, or corrections officer.
This is all the more alarming when those claiming Irish ancestry are well represented in the police and fire and community service professions (where were all the Irish teachers in the parade?), yet most of their own countrymen in today's America are here illegally and live a hand to mouth existence. Why is it that there are so many Irish police in America, yet still Irish immigrants must live here illegally?
This was hilarious, I saw several counter-terrorism units scuttling around, with snipers on the roof of the Met where the parade ended. As if the entire parade wasn't full of law enforcement officers and their families.
Not even an illegal Irish person in New York can get a posh city job like these NY Sanitation Officers.
I wonder what Jasper Johns would have made of all these American flags passing by the Met Museum with his exhibit inside?
