NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade 3/17/2009

Home | Smith Photos | Family Stories | Ryan Data | Smith Data | News Center | SITE MAP | Contact Us

(Left) Elizabeth Smith with St. Patrick.  This Irish patriarch was very popular along 5th Avenue.  Click to Enlarge

(Above) Firemen marching - Engine 342. Click to Enlarge

(Top).   Elizabeth and Terry Smith on 5th Avenue and 54th Street.  Click to Enlarge.

The parade lasts 6 hours.  We watched from 11:30 to 1:00, spent some time in Central Park, and watched again from 3:00 to 4:00.  We saw Hibernians, many pipe and drum corps, marching bands, tributes to every Irish County, and local cities marching in support of the Irish.

Click to Enlarge

(Above)  One of the pipe and drum corps marching along 5th Avenue.  Click to Enlarge.

(Right).  Revelers.  Click to Enlarge.

Submitted by V.J. Smith

Luck o' the Irish

Ten percent of South Dakotans are Irish

BY Elissa Dickey, edickey@aberdeennews.com

Published on Monday, March 16, 2009

A tenth of the state's population will be telling the truth when they claim to be Irish on Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day.

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2000, the most recent available, 78,379 South Dakotans are of Irish ancestry. That's 10.4 percent of the state's population of 754,844, behind only German (40.7 percent) and Norwegian (15.3 percent), not counting the 14.2 percent "other ancestries" category.

In terms of where Irish falls on the nationality list, Potter County leads the pack regionally: Irish is the second-highest nationality for the county, behind German.

And Potter is one of two counties in the region that can boast an Irish percentage at or near 10 percent. The county's 264 Irish residents account for 9.8 percent of its population of 2,693.

The other is Dickey County, N.D., with 575, or 10 percent of the county's population of 5,757.

Spink County isn't far behind, with 676, or 9.1 percent of the county's population of 7,454.

The area county that finds Irish the lowest on the nationality list is Campbell: German, Norwegian, Russian, Dutch, English, United States/American, other ancestries and Swedish all come before Irish.

Brown County has 2,934 residents of Irish ancestry, or 8.3 percent of the county's population of 35,460. Irish is third in Brown County, behind German and Norwegian, and tied with other ancestries.

Nationwide, Irish is the second-highest nationality - again, behind German. Almost 36 million people - or 12 percent of the U.S. population - claim Irish ancestry. More recent figures, from 2005-07, were available for the U.S.