City to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with annual parade on Sunday

Don your best kilt and wear the greenest of greens, because the city of Winter Park is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day early.

Although the popular Irish holiday is not until March 17, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee — along with the city — will be painted green as the 40th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place March 4.

“It is a community affair, and the community all comes out for it whether they’re Irish or not Irish,” said Cathy Quinlivan, who serves as the president of the committee. “We’re promoting our Irish culture, but in the meantime, we are also doing something nice for the community.”

More than 60 entities be represented in this year’s parade. Those will include Irish-American bands, the Shriners, dance groups, local officials and more, Quinlivan said. The parade’s marshal this year is Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings.

Starting at 2 p.m. Sunday, those participants will begin their march at the Winter Park Country Club, then follow a route that takes them south down Park Avenue to Lyman Avenue.

And the fun for this early celebration doesn’t stop just there. The event will feature Irish music and step-dancing at the main stage in Central Park right after the parade. Sarah Costello, Tir Na Greine and the Watters School of Irish Dance will all perform alongside music performed by Mike Daly.

“Everybody seems to like to go back to the park and watch the dancers,” Quinlivan said. “People bring their blankets and their chairs and they camp out — so it’s pretty nice after the parade.”

The parade is a celebration of Irish culture, and to a first-generation American and daughter of Irish immigrants, it is something that has meant much to Quinlivan. Although she has only served on the committee for going on four years, Quinlivan has been a part of the parade since its inception in 1978.

She recalls with clarity the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Winter Park, when it was started by a small group called the Irish-American Cultural Society, which later went on to become the Irish-American Club.

“We wanted to see a parade in Winter Park — a parade to be proud of,” Quinlivan said. “So the beginnings were just those few stragglers walking up the street holding our flags and everything — that’s really what it was.”

In those early days, Quinlivan said she remembered walking alongside her children during the parades and that there was only one entertainer — a gentleman who played music as he sat in the back of a flatbed truck. 

Quinlivan also said her mother, who turns 95 this year, was a part of every parade leading up to this year’s celebration. She won’t be able to participate this year because she now is in a nursing home.

Since then, the parade in Winter Park has blossomed into a half-day event enjoyed by thousands of visitors.

“We are surprised, ourselves, at how long it has lasted and how big it has gotten,” Quinlivan said. “But without the city of Winter Park backing us — we tried doing it on our own, but we didn’t have enough money to do it — so that’s how we keep it going.”