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2018 St. Patrick’s Day Parade is Saturday March 17, 2018. The parade starts at 0930.

We will meet at the Irish Rover, 54 S. Broadway, Denver, CO, at 0745 for breakfast provided by the Irish Rover. The first bus will leave for downtown at 0815.  Alan O’Gorman, owner of the Rover, has graciously once again stepped up for us with breakfast and the bus. Street parking is metered on Saturday, so you might want to find a parking lot or park in the northwest corner of the Security Services Credit Union across from the Rover. It is our understanding that you will not be ticketed for parking in this lot if you park as far west in the parking lot as you can. Do not park in the spaces that have signs reserved for the credit union.

We don’t know our unit number yet. We should know later this week and I will send another e-mail out with this information when I get it. We are very close to the front of the parade due to our pipe band winning best pipe band again. We will assemble in the Coors Field parking lot starting at 0830 and our staging area is“Large Entry”.  Parade vehicles enter at 33rd & Blake, you will be directed to our staging area from there. I would like to have our group CES picture taken at 0900 in the staging area. Check www.denverstpatricksdayparade.com

It is our understanding that if you plan on driving downtown and parking before the parade, you can park in the parking garage at Coors Field B, 27th and Blake, for free on a first come, first served basis.  The gate will open at 0700 and will be closed at 0900. After you have enjoyed the parade, you will exit Coors Field parking lot B via the 33rd Street exit. You will need to know our Colorado Emerald Society Unit Number.  Follow all instructions by Parade Marshals while parking or in the staging area.

The bus will leave the area after the parade and return to the Rover. Please pay attention on parade day for the time and location of the first departure. A second trip down and back to the Rover will be made if necessary.

If you do not have a dress uniform to march with us, we have CES black dress shirts. For new members without a dress uniform, you would wear the black CES dress shirt with black pants and black shoes or boots. The CES black dress shirt also looks great with a kilt, if you are so inclined.

Please contact me for buying the CES dress shirt ($30.00). The parade is two weeks from Saturday and if anything changes, I will be sending any additional information out as I get it.

Please come on out and march with the best organization and the best pipe band in the parade.

Steve O’Neill, CES President

2017 Scholarship Recipients….CONGRATULATIONS

Isabella Hart

Nichole Shannon (not pictured)

James Patterson

Christina Boyle

Each year the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee holds its Queen Colleen contest in February in preparation for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  The Colorado Emerald Society has been fortunate to sponsor several of its member’s qualified candidates over the years.  If you have a candidate in mind check out the application process at:

http://www.denverstpatricksdayparade.com/honorees/queen-colleen-main-page

Posting from St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee Page

Apply to be our Queen Colleen 2019

Want to be the next Queen Colleen?   The pageant is full for 2018 and we’re no longer taking applications.  Keep in touch for 2019!  We’ll have the application up late next year so stay tuned.   In the meantime, get your tickets to this years coronation and look around the site for more information on Queen Colleen and all the St. Patrick’s day fun!   

2013
QUEEN COLLEEN
JESSICA LESSER
Daughter Of Ces Member Lou & Maureen Lesser
Proudly Sponsored By The Colorado Emerald Society

Jessica will compete in the Rose of Tralee Competition in Ireland.  If you  would like to help with her expenses please send donations to the CES, PO Box 40211, Denver, CO 80204.  Make check out to CES & reference “Rose of Tralee” in the lower right corner of your check.

2012 2nd Runner-Up Jesscia Lesser Daugher of CES Member Lou & Maureen Lesser Sponsored by Colorado Emerald Society.	2011 QUEEN COLLEEN KERIAYN O’DONNELL Rose Of Tralee Contestant 1st Ever From Colorado Daughter of CES Member Bill  & Teresa O’Donnell Sponsored by Colorado Emerald Society.	2002 Queen Colleen Erin O’Neill Daughter of CES Past Vice-President Steve & Cindy O’Neill Sponsored by the Colorado Emerald Society
2006 Winner Erin Hartman Sponsored By The Colorado Emerald Society		The Colorado Emerald Society was proud to sponsor Erin Haney, daughter of  CES Member Jim and Connie Haney, in the 2007 Queen Colleen Pagent, Congratulations to Erin for winning as the First Runner-Up  at the 45th annual St. Patrick’s Day Queen Colleen contest.
Shannon O’Neill 2006 Queen Colleen 1st Runner -Up Daughter of CES Past Vice-President Steve O’Neill and Cindy O’Neill Sponsored by the Colorado Emerald Society	2006 Queen Colleen L-r President Brian Reilly, Queen Erin Hartman, Queen’s Mother Ces Secretary Patti Kennedy Riedel And Patti’s Husband Richard Riedel	The Colorado Emerald Society Sponsored Meghan Gerwick (back Row, 2nd From Left) In The 2008 Queen Colleen Contest. Megan Is A Student At Regis Jesuit School And In The National Honor Society.

DENVER’S ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
1885~2010

“St. Patrick parish and its heavily Irish congregation helped launch Denver’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities.” writes Thomas J. Noel in his book, Colorado Catholicism, The Archdiocese of Denver 1857-1989 (published by Boulder: The University Press of Colorado, 1989),  Noel reports, “In 1885, Father Carrigan had initiated St. Pat’s Day fund raising galas at the old Broadway Theater downtown.  These festivals, complete with costumes, musical entertainment, and bagpipes. attracted celebrants from throughout the city.  In collaboration with the Daughters of Erin and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, St. Patrick parish spearheaded festivities that celebrated the rich cultural and religious traditions of the Emerald Isle.  A more militant approach was taken March 17,1902, according to the Denver Times, by Captain Stephen J. Donleavey, secretary of the Denver Fire and Police Board:  He announced plans to recruit a volunteer army in Colorado in order to invade England and free Ireland.

In 1906, the Ancient Order of Hibernians organized what may have been Denver’s first official St. Patrick’s Day parade.  The parade was followed by High Mass with Father William O’Ryan’s sermon on “Ireland’s Loyalty to Patrick’s Faith,” a grand reception, and an evening ball..  St. Patrick’s Day parades went out of style during the 1920’s when anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan frowned on any such displays of “un-American” ethnic groups.

Not until March 17, 1962 was Denver’s parade revived when Red Fenwick, cowboy columnist for The Denver Post, and some of his ‘Evil Companions Club’ staged a mini-march. “””Witnesses,” reported The Denver Post. ‘claim it was a short march: the paraders walked out of Duffy’s Shamrock Restaurant (closed in 2007), went around the block, and back to the bar.”  Others claim that the inaugural modern St. Patrick’s Day parade came a month later, April 17, 1962, when Lord Mayor Robert Briscoe of Dublin was visiting Denver.  His Irish-American hosts took him to lunch at Duffy’s; after a few hours of refreshments and lamentations about the parade, deceased since World War I, these worthies took action.  They proceeded to march around the block, proclaiming their procession a reinauguration of Denver’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  Furthermore, they established an official parade committee in 1963.

In 1963 St. Patrick’s Day parade was a hit with thousands of marchers and spectators. “By 1974, crowed the Denver Catholic Register, Denver’s parade “drew a crowd estimated at over 120,000 people, making it the second largest parade in the U.S.”  Although this claim is contested by Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St. Paul, and other cities, Denver marchers continue to insist they are number two, if not number one.”

Many Irish-American Denver police officers and fire fighters were involved in St. Patrick’s Day festivities over the years, but they were not organized as a group.  George Kennedy and Danny Neery Veith of the Denver Police Department, decided it was time to organize an Emerald Society in Denver.  In 2000, at John Nallen’s Irish Pub, the decision was made to combine Colorado’s public safety officers into one organization- the Colorado Emerald Society (CES).  Today the Colorado Emerald Society marches in the Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade and is a member of the the National Law Enforcement Emerald Societies (NCLEES) and the Colorado United Irish Societies (CUIS).  Noel Hickey’s, Celtic Tavern/Delaneys, is the official home to the COLORADO EMERALD SOCIETY.

www.denverstpatricksdayparade.org

For Information: http://clanhannon.com/stpatrick/campaign.htm

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