MIDTOWN — Thousands of proud Irish descendants, tourists and city residents all decked out in green, flocked to Fifth Avenue Tuesday for the city's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.
The event's grand marshal, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, reminisced about celebrating the holiday as a child.
"We used to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade when I was 8 and 9 and 10 years old and now to think I'm the Grand Marshal," he said as the parade kicked off around 11:00 a.m. near 44th Street. "I'd say hallelujah but it's Lent!"
One family from Breezy Point, Long Island said they've been coming to the parade for decades.
"Every year we come back there's more children," John Brennan, 76, said, who got engaged to his wife Patsy in front of the Pierre Hotel near the parade route on St. Patrick's Day 50 years ago.
What started with just the two of them, has spawned into a family tradition. Now they come to the parades with first and second and even third cousins in tow.
"It's great we love it," said Dorieann Sanders, the 45-year-old daughter of the Brennans.
LGBT marchers from @OutNBCUniversal were allowed to march behind an openly LGBT banner. In the past, the committee that runs the parade drew criticism by telling LGBT groups that they should march under the banners of the other 320 marching groups.
Being part of the parade was "an important step towards inclusion in 2015," NBC chief diversity officer Craig Robinson said while walking with about 70 other employees.
Chelsea resident Tim Kirk, 55, who works in the online department, said he was "very very proud" to be marching.
"I'm out, I'm gay, I'm married and I'm Irish and it's something I never thought would happen to me."
However, other gay groups were still shut out this year, prompting protesters to take a stand along the parade route and call on the Catholic church to do more to mend its ties with the LGBT community.
"Let us march," some protesters chanted near the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.
"You fossils!" one man shouted as Cardinal Dolan walked past, still smiling and waving.
Kelly Cogswell, 48, from the East Village said many members of the Irish LGBT community are still excluded from the parade.
"OutNBCUniversal is the only group that's been allowed to march, not the people who have been trying very hard to March in this parade for over 20 years," Cogswell said. "We have been excluded from the parade even though we're as Irish as everyone else."
