Hamilton St. Patrick’s Parade committee treasurer Vince McKelvey points to the crowd during last year’s event. McKelvey, the 2014 parade grand marshal, compared the parade to a baseball franchise that had relocated. (File photo by Albert Rende.)
Editor’s Note: The Trenton St. Patrick’s Day parade has been postponed until March 21, according to an email sent by parade chairman Dennis Keenan March 12.
By Alissa Ambrose
For 30 years, the familiar sounds of bagpipes and snare drums have welcomed St. Patrick’s Day in Mercer County. This year, that traditional Irish music will be heard in echo.
For the first time, both Trenton and Hamilton Township will hold their annual St. Patrick’s parade on the same day, Saturday, March 14. Both the Hamilton and Trenton parades claim to be the “original” parade, and in some ways, both are. The two events evolved from one parade committee, assembled in 1985 by four local pub owners. For 25 years, the St. Patrick’s procession marched down Trenton’s Hamilton Avenue on the Saturday before the March 17 holiday.
But five years ago, a schism occurred within the planning committee. Trenton’s Irish community had changed, and members voted to relocate the annual event to neighboring Hamilton Township. While it was a welcome move for some, others in the group felt strongly about keeping a procession in Trenton as well. There have been two events, and two planning committees, ever since. This year is the first time the two parades will happen simultaneously.
“The problem is there are so many parades in this state and there are not that many Saturdays in March,” said Dennis Keenan, chairman of the Trenton Irish Heritage Association and 2015 parade Grand Marshal. Keenan added that his group had originally announced this year’s parade would be held on March 21, but ultimately decided they wanted to reclaim the parade’s traditional date.
“For 25 years it had been the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day,” Keenan said, “this is the 30th, we are gonna go on that Saturday.”
Keenan, a lifelong Trenton resident and retired fire chief of that city, has been involved with parade planning since 1989. He rejects the Hamilton parade’s claim to the “original” title.
“For the other parade to be claiming they are the 30th parade in Hamilton, they are not, they are the fifth parade in Hamilton,” Keenan said. “We have done it for 30 years, and we hope to continue for many more.”
But planners of the Hamilton parade disagree. Though the location has changed, they say, their event is the true original. In fact, the Hamilton group holds legal rights to the name “Trenton St. Patrick Parade Committee,” according to tax records.
Vince McKelvey, treasurer of the Hamilton parade, compared the event to the Atlanta Braves baseball team, a franchise that was previously based in both Milwaukee and Boston.
“The Trenton St. Patrick’s Day Parade, after 25 years, they moved, they moved the franchise,” McKelvey said. “Therefore, they are entitled to [call it] the original St. Patrick’s Parade.”
The decision to move, McKelvey says, came down to simple demographics. Most of the Irish families and businesses that supported the event had left the capital city and were uninterested in returning, he said, adding that it had it had become harder to raise both funds and local government support in Trenton.
“It was an idea whose time had come,” said McKelvey, who added that the parade that now draws thousands of spectators on Hamilton’s Nottingham Way resembles the level of festivity of what used to happen in Trenton.
Fundraising is a major undertaking on both sides. Parade planners estimate costs at $50,000 in Hamilton, which covers expenses including live music, insurance and bathroom facilities for the 3-hour event. In Trenton, it takes about 90 minutes to cover the one-mile parade route. This year, planners there estimate costs at about $33,000 and have recently launched a “Save the Trenton St. Patrick’s Day Parade” campaign on the fundraising website Indiegogo, in a last minute effort to raise the remaining funds.
But despite the challenges faced in Trenton, supporters remain committed to the original tradition, and location, of the St. Patrick’s celebration.
At the Tir na nOg tavern on Hamilton Avenue, steps from the Trenton parade route, parade day continues to be the busiest of the year, according to current owner Todd Faulkner, who said he appreciates the legacy of the Trenton parade.
“We believe in the city, we believe in the police, the fire department, the mayor and, as a business owner,” Faulkner said, “I want to put faith in this great city.”
Faulkner’s pub was formerly owned by the late Billy Briggs, a fixture in Trenton’s Irish community and a founder of the parade, who passed away in 2008.
On a recent Monday afternoon, Tir na nOg regular Joe Connell expressed his concerns about both parades being held on the same day.
“Ideally if it was one parade, it would be a lot more successful,” said Connell, who lives in Hamilton and is originally from Ireland. “I would love to see them get together.”
While the Hamilton parade planners see their future squarely in Hamilton Township, Trenton’s parade planners are committed to keeping the event in the state’s capital and are holding firm to the original vision of Briggs and others in Trenton’s Irish community.
In a letter to the editor of the Times of Trenton last spring, Dennis Keenan wrote he remained committed to the Trenton parade because he didn’t want to get to Heaven and have to tell Briggs his dream of a Trenton St. Patrick’s Day parade had faded.
But Keenan has also said he hopes both sides can discuss a better plan for future events.
“I am definitely ready to sit down with somebody to try to figure something out,” he said, adding that there are tentative plans for both sides to talk after the 2015 parades are over.
As March 14 approaches, Keenan says the Trenton committee is doing their best to accommodate parade participants that want to march in both by arranging transportation from Trenton to Hamilton on the day of the events. The Hamilton Committee does not believe there will be any overlap, but expressed some concern that groups that usually attend both may feel torn.
Trenton-native Thomas Beers has been a parade marshal since the first procession in 1986, and will soon march for the 30th time, this year in Hamilton. He fondly remembers the parade’s beginnings, but also understood the need to move locations.
“When it first began it was amazing,” Beers said, “but over the years I have seen the crowds dwindle and some of the support along the parade route, it seems to be disappearing. I am a firm believer that change is good sometimes.”
Come March 14, parade goers throughout the area will come out to celebrate Mercer County’s Irish culture and heritage. Whether on Hamilton Avenue or Nottingham Way, crowds wearing green will be entertained by the enthusiastic performances of pipe bands, mummers and Irish step dancers. Perhaps in the future, as some community members hope, Trenton and Hamilton will find a way to merge the two events into one.
“I would love to see that happen…people put aside their differences and work together,” said Beers, “because people on both sides are good people, very good people.”
St. Patrick’s Day parade in Hamilton will take place March 14 at 1 p.m. For more information on the Hamilton event, go to hamiltonparade.com. The parade in Trenton has been postponed until March 21. For more information on the Trenton event, go to merceririshfest.com.
,
