Our favourite photos of past St Patrick's Day parades in Cork

We want to hear about your memories of the rebel county's March 17 celebrations as we round up our favorite photographs of parades past

Crowds fill the streets at the 1956 St. Patrick's Day Parade in Cork city.

Many things have changed since the world started celebrating our patron saint, with the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade recorded in New York City in 1762.

One of those changes, of course, was the name of this proud newspaper, with The Cork Examiner recording the rebel county's own inaugural March 17 parade in 1872, when thousands gathered around Cork City centre.

Cork's 1959 Patricks Day Parade weaves down St Patrick Street. 

Celebrating St Patrick, however, was far from the minds of Corkonians back then, with the parade actually acting as a call for the releasing of Fenian prisoners by the Nationalist party.

According to Ballinlough native and Cork City Cllr Kieran McCarthy, the parade has been a sign of the times in since.

“If it was the 1970s it was industrialization and Apple computers and in the 1920s it was the clearance of slums, optimism in the city,” he says.

“In 1921 there was a curfew and Black and Tans on the streets. Large crowds weren’t allowed to gather and the police were very much present. They were looking for people involved in the Cork City IRA brigade, they had no pictures of these guys and they didn’t know who was who. It was highly policed.

St Patrick's Street on March 17  1959.

“Then think of the 1980s when we were in recession but we still drove lorries through the streets and the movement from lorries to pageantry and floats afterwards.” 

After writing about the Irish Free State Army parades of the 1920s, which took place during the turbulent times McCarthy speaks of, the Examiner had nothing to report on when it came to the county’s Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, due to various world events such as World War II.

Families gather at the 1982 parade.

In 1955, we celebrated the first Cork parade in 30 years, however, and we didn't stop...until Covid-19 hit last March. 

McCarthy, like many locals, has fond memories of the parade, from perching on an Evening Echo float as a boy scout to dressing up as a monster with Cork Community Art Link.

The Sanyo Girls H.S. Band and Twirlers from Hiroshima, Japan dancing in 2000. Picture: Denis Minihane.

“I remember being in the parade years ago as a child and it’s like running a gauntlet. Once you enter the crowd, with the crowd on both sides, it’s just overpowering. The many different groups over the years have been fabulous. More and more we’re seeing international groups walking too. People are asserting their identity through the parade,” he says.

Members of Filipino Cork Community at the 2015 Cork City parade. Picture: Clare Keogh

“It’s been about getting the message of Cork out there as well and it breaks up the monotony of March. Now it’s like this wilderness all the way through with the lockdown but we will get back to normal at some point.” 

Cork BMX Club performing at the 2017 Parade. Picture: Darragh Kane

Even though we’re about to celebrate another bewildering St Patrick’s Day at home, the county of Cork won’t be sitting on its laurels, with events and workshops taking place online, local drive-through parades being organised in some areas, and Cork landmarks, such as City Hall and Blackrock Castle, already lighting up green.

Hendrickson Silver Dancers pictured at the 2018 Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade. Picture: Darragh Kane