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COURIER LIFE, APRIL 1-7, 2022
Irish eyes smile in South Brooklyn
Bay Ridge and Gerritsen Beach St. Patrick’s Day parades make jubilant return
BY BEN BRACHFEL
& KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
After two long years of missing
out, the Gerritsen Beach and
Bay Ridge communities finally
got to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
the right way this past weekend,
with neighborhood parades.
The Bay Ridge St. Patrick’s
Day Parade was back for the
first time in two years on Sunday,
bringing music, dance, and
cheer to the community — be
they Irish in heritage or in spirit.
Hosted a week after the holiday
and the parades in Manhattan
and Park Slope, the Bay
Ridge parade has been a South
Brooklyn tradition for 27 years,
and the March 27 festivities
were the first to be held in-person
since 2019. The 2020 march,
like so many others, was scheduled
to take place just as the first
wave of the pandemic started in
the city, putting the kibosh on
the saintly celebration.
Throngs of southern Brooklynites
gathered along the parade
route to cheer musicians,
dancers, Grand Marshall Linda
Gallagher-Lomanto, and the parade’s
honored grand marshalls
— including Brooklyn Paper’s
own editor, Meaghan McGoldrick
— who had been chosen
based on their contributions to
the community way back in 2020
and have had to wait for their
moment in the March sun for two
whole years.
“They never got to march in
the parade,” said parade president
Denise Frederick. “We
didn’t even know if we were going
to get permits until only a
couple of months ago. Once we
got that, we decided they would
have their time to march.”
Each year, the parade committee
comes up with a list of
potential honorees and asks
the public if they want to nominate
any standouts from the Bay
Ridge community, Frederick
said, based on their work, volunteer
activities, and general
Brooklyn spirit.
“There’s so many benefits
that go on, people that give their
time and don’t ask for money,”
she said. “Just people who stand
out as somebody who makes Bay
Ridge, Bay Ridge.”
Gallagher-Lomato, the longest
serving grand marshal in
Bay Ridge parade history, is a
longtime Bay Ridge resident —
having graduated from the beloved
and now closed Bishop
Kearney High School — and a
regular fixture at the parade.
She started volunteering for the
parade in 2003, served on the executive
board of the Brooklyn St.
Patrick’s Society, and has picked
up multiple awards for her work
in the city’s Irish communities
and organizations.
She finally got her flowers
on Sunday among bagpipes and
drum beats, and the parade went
off “without a hitch,” Frederick
said, save for a little unexpected
cold and wind.
During the rest of the year, the
parade committee hosts events
and fundraisers to keep the community
engaged and raise money
to fund the big event each spring.
The organization also raises
money for their scholarship
fund, established in 2015, which
grants merit-based scholarships
to a number of local eighth graders
planning to attend Catholic
high school in the area.
Brooklynites were thrilled to
be back along the parade route
celebrating their neighbors and
St. Paddy’s Day, Frederick said.
“I think everybody was just so
happy to be outside and around
people, around to celebrate the
Irish heritage and what it means
to Bay Ridge,” she said.
One day earlier, a smaller
— but just as hearty crowd —
marked the holiday in Gerritsen
Beach.
The waterfront nabe in southern
Brooklyn, home to a little
over 5,000 residents, did not
bring out the throngs of Guinness
chugging merrymakers
that turned out to the larger parades
in Park Slope and Bay
Ridge, but dozens of residents
still showed up to the hyperlocal
parade to celebrate Irish, Brooklyn,
and Gerritsen Beach pride
after missing the last two years
due to COVID-19.
Locals Joan Parisi and Michael
Gaffney served as grand
marshals, and green-clad spectators
watched performances by
bagpipers and by the students
of O’Malley’s Irish Dance Academy.
Also marching along the
parade route — which started on
Whitney Avenue before sashaying
down Gerritsen Avenue all
the way to Seba Playground —
were the Ancient Order of Hibernians,
the NYPD’s 61st Precinct,
the Gerritsen Beach Volunteer
Fire Department, and Assemblymember
Jaime Williams,
among others.
After years of marchers doing
the work for free, local resident
and activist Jim Donovan
organized a fundraiser this year
to help pay bagpipers and dancers
for their hard work. The Go-
FundMe has raised over $1,400
thus far, passing the $1,200 goal.
After the parade, attendees
split to pack local bars to escape
the cold and enjoy some brews
and ceremonial corned beef and
cabbage.
A parade-goer gets festive in Gerritsen Beach. Photo by Arthur de Gaeta
Top: It was a party on Investors Bank’s Bay Ridge float. Bottom left: Bay Ridge
St. Patrick’s Day Parade Grand Marshal Linda Gallagher-Lomanto. Bottom right:
Deputy Marshals Tracy McDonagh-Joerss and Meaghan McGoldrick.
Photos by Arthur de Gaeta and Mike Beitchman