March 7, 2025 • 10 mins
CoolKay and Countyfairgrounds USA- interviews Mike Boyle the Director of the St. Patricks Day parade this year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can I stay around in cool? Okay? Here do I have?
Mike Boyle, director of the Saint Patrick State Parade in Milwaukee.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You do, indeed? Hello there, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm busy, as I'm sure you are too.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, it's getting to be crunch time.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, okay. So how long has this parade been going
on in Milwaukee?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The parade has been sponsored by the Shamrock Club of
Wisconsin since nineteen sixty seven, seventh parade.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Okay, all right, So you know, when I look at
these things and it looks like a really big parade,
one of the first questions that always comes to my
mind is wearing the hec do people park?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, there's a part street parking all over downtown, but
the parade kicks off at the corner of Martin Luther
King Drive in West Wisconsin Avenue, which is right in
front of the Avenue Office building and the Third Street Market.
There is a parking structure attached to that building and
(01:03):
people can park there on parade day for three dollars.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, that's good. Is there seating for people to sit
and watch this thing?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We don't do any reviewing stands or bleacher sets, so
we encourage people to bring along their own pant chairs
and folding chairs and such.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, all right, and give me a brief rundown of
what streets it's going to go down and where it starts.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's about a mile and a quarter mile and a
half route. We start, as I said, at the front
entrance to the Third Street Market Hall at MLK Drive
in Wisconsin. We go eastbound to Plankington Avenue, make a
big right hand turn there near Moe's Irish Pub obviously,
and go up to Kilbourne Avenue, take a slight jog
(01:54):
westward back, and then we go north on Martin Luther
King Drive, past what here in Milwaukee is referred to
as the Old World Third Street of Business district. And
then we go up to Juneau Avenue, take a big
right hand eastern turn and go across the Milwaukee River
and pass a couple of other pubs, and we end
(02:16):
up on Water Street, which is one of the main
drags here in Milwaukee as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So can you give us a brief idea of how
many floats and things are in it?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, we have about one hundred units in the parade.
The most notable pieces in the parade Milwaukee has eight
schools of Irish dance, and so we have them all
in the parade. And I will tell you, as as
somebody who tries to organize this a year, organize this
every year, it's a bit of a challenge to try
(02:47):
and spread eight dance schools out through one hundred units
and not have them kind of on top of each other.
We've got a couple. We've got a couple of bagpipe bands.
Local dog groups, so we have Irish Wolfhounds and Irish Centers.
We have a couple of specialty units local Irish organizations,
the Emerald Society, the group of Irish Police Officers and
(03:11):
DA's and such. The local chapter of the Ancient Order
of Hibernians joins us. We have Irish Fest, the world's
largest Irish festival is a curse here in Milwaukee every August,
and so we have the Irish West Folks joining us.
A couple of real special things this year, the Milwaukee
(03:34):
Fire Department is celebrating their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
They were founded in Milwaukee one hundred and fifty years ago,
so we're we have a big unit from the from
the Fire Department, including the Chief and the cadet class
and whatever and a big truck, and we're going to
honor them for their service to Milwaukee. And of course,
(03:55):
you know, the Irish Americans have been involved in LEAs
fire service from nearly the very beginning, you know, the
eighteen hundreds back on the East coast. The other thing
is recently a former US Congressman and mayor of the
City of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, retired as a US ambassador
(04:16):
to Luxembourg, and we are inviting him to come back
in the parade and join us, and we're gonna thank
him for his service and welcome him home. So it's
going to be a bit of a celebration.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
How many floats did he get, Probably about.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Eight or nine floats. Each of the dance schools puts
together a float, and then there's a couple of the
Shamrock Club, the sponsoring organization does a nice little float,
as does the West Town Association, which is the business
district west of the Milwaukee River, and there are co
sponsors and they put together a nice little float as well.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So some of these things that are going on, they're
actually performing as the parade is going in.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh absolutely absolutely again as a prede director. That's one
of my challenges is to especially the dance schools, to
have they want to stop and do a little quick performance,
and then I gotta keep marching along, keep the parade
running down and running down the street and not developed
too many gaps.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It sounds stressful, darling.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Most of most of them will know the routine by now.
With a little gentle prodding, they they'll get it. Get
it here again.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You know, I did interview the Saint Patrick's Milwaukee Day
Parade once before. I can't remember how many years ago,
but I have interviewed you guys before. Saint Patrick's Day
is a big thing in this country. Okay, so let's
see there's a pre party and after party.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
There isn't we have a whole weekend full of full
of activities here uh Our. I mentioned the West Town Association,
the Business district downtown. They're hosting a pre parade party
Friday nights at a pub on MLK Drive called the
Lucky Clover Irish pub that murns Friday evening from five
(06:07):
point thirty to nine. There will be entertainment and drink
specials and a raffle in the whole nine yards. Then
next Saturday. On parade morning, we start off with an
annual mass, our thirty eighth annual Mass in honor of
Saint Patrick that occurs on the south side of Milwaukee
at Saint Patrick's Church, seventh in West Washington Street, and
(06:30):
that begins at eight thirty in the morning. We have
one of the bagpipe bands providing music for that, and
there's a choir and readings. The mass readings are done
in both Irish and English, both Gaelic and English. It's
it's a gorgeous event every year. Then, of course we
get to the parade itself kicks off at noon and
again the starting point on that is the corner of
(06:52):
MLK Drive and Wisconsin Avenue. And then after the parade
actually beginning at two o'clock two to six, the Shamrock
Club hosts a post parade party and that takes place.
That takes place at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center
at twenty first in West Wisconsin Avenue. It's the former
(07:14):
Congregationalist church that was purchased a bunch of years ago
and turned into a community center as well.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Do you have any idea how many people might attend this?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Oh, that's an excellent question. Obviously the police stopped giving
you know, crowded six years and years ago. I just
say many thousands. The mile and a quarter route is
pretty well aligned with people from one end to the other,
especially as you may want to understand in front of
the pubs up and down the up and down the route.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, I've always thought that pubs and Saint Patrick's Day
go together for some reason.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Well, you know, it's interesting if you look at the
history of Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland. Until fairly recently,
Saint Patrick's Day was a holy day as oppost Tola
Holiday in Ireland. The pubs weren't closed in Ireland until
oh good lord, I think the late seventies, early eighties.
(08:13):
Until that point there was nothing, and interestingly enough, there
weren't really parades in Ireland as well. And they finally
wised up as people from all over the world, especially
the States, would come to Ireland to celebrate Saint Patrick's
Day and they didn't find the celebrations they would find
at home, and the tourism people said, well, we got
(08:34):
to do something about that. So, if you want to
think about it this way, the US actually exported Saint
Patrick's Day parades back to Ireland.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, I have thought about it that way. It's different.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, you know what, We've been doing St Patrick's state
parades here in the US since the early seventeen hundreds.
One source that I I read points to the first
celebration of St. Patri's Day in the US, or actually
in America because it predates the US. A group called
(09:10):
the Society of Charitable Irish in Boston held the first
celebration there in seventeen thirty seven. New York dates back
to seventeen sixty two, with Irish soldiers that at that
point were serving in the British Army.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Okay, are you Irish? I do?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We bet? Yeah, lucky everybody HEINZ fifty seven. But the
Irish have more fun than any of the other people
that I'm related to. So I claim that with the
last name of Boyle.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I have to. Okay, Dylan, I've enjoyed the interview. We'll
get this posted and hopefully people will get to listen
to it and get some information on the parade and
where the park and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
If you happen to think about oh, if you want to,
as you post it, the parade website is Saint Patrick's
Parade with the words saints spelled out Saint Patrick's Parade
obviously no apostrophe on Patrick's. You can't have that on
a web address Saint Patrick's Parade dot or or RG
(10:12):
dot org. If you want to link that in your
description to the.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah I found it, I will.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And and when you
get it posted, if you would do me the favor
of just sending me a link to it so I
can share it around here
Speaker 1 (10:29):
We'll do Mike, you, thank you, Bye bye bye
Can I stay around in cool? Okay? Here do I have?
Mike Boyle, director of the Saint Patrick State Parade in Milwaukee.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You do, indeed? Hello there, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm busy, as I'm sure you are too.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, it's getting to be crunch time.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, okay. So how long has this parade been going
on in Milwaukee?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The parade has been sponsored by the Shamrock Club of
Wisconsin since nineteen sixty seven, seventh parade.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Okay, all right, So you know, when I look at
these things and it looks like a really big parade,
one of the first questions that always comes to my
mind is wearing the hec do people park?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, there's a part street parking all over downtown, but
the parade kicks off at the corner of Martin Luther
King Drive in West Wisconsin Avenue, which is right in
front of the Avenue Office building and the Third Street Market.
There is a parking structure attached to that building and
(01:03):
people can park there on parade day for three dollars.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, that's good. Is there seating for people to sit
and watch this thing?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We don't do any reviewing stands or bleacher sets, so
we encourage people to bring along their own pant chairs
and folding chairs and such.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, all right, and give me a brief rundown of
what streets it's going to go down and where it starts.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's about a mile and a quarter mile and a
half route. We start, as I said, at the front
entrance to the Third Street Market Hall at MLK Drive
in Wisconsin. We go eastbound to Plankington Avenue, make a
big right hand turn there near Moe's Irish Pub obviously,
and go up to Kilbourne Avenue, take a slight jog
(01:54):
westward back, and then we go north on Martin Luther
King Drive, past what here in Milwaukee is referred to
as the Old World Third Street of Business district. And
then we go up to Juneau Avenue, take a big
right hand eastern turn and go across the Milwaukee River
and pass a couple of other pubs, and we end
(02:16):
up on Water Street, which is one of the main
drags here in Milwaukee as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So can you give us a brief idea of how
many floats and things are in it?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, we have about one hundred units in the parade.
The most notable pieces in the parade Milwaukee has eight
schools of Irish dance, and so we have them all
in the parade. And I will tell you, as as
somebody who tries to organize this a year, organize this
every year, it's a bit of a challenge to try
(02:47):
and spread eight dance schools out through one hundred units
and not have them kind of on top of each other.
We've got a couple. We've got a couple of bagpipe bands.
Local dog groups, so we have Irish Wolfhounds and Irish Centers.
We have a couple of specialty units local Irish organizations,
the Emerald Society, the group of Irish Police Officers and
(03:11):
DA's and such. The local chapter of the Ancient Order
of Hibernians joins us. We have Irish Fest, the world's
largest Irish festival is a curse here in Milwaukee every August,
and so we have the Irish West Folks joining us.
A couple of real special things this year, the Milwaukee
(03:34):
Fire Department is celebrating their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
They were founded in Milwaukee one hundred and fifty years ago,
so we're we have a big unit from the from
the Fire Department, including the Chief and the cadet class
and whatever and a big truck, and we're going to
honor them for their service to Milwaukee. And of course,
(03:55):
you know, the Irish Americans have been involved in LEAs
fire service from nearly the very beginning, you know, the
eighteen hundreds back on the East coast. The other thing
is recently a former US Congressman and mayor of the
City of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, retired as a US ambassador
(04:16):
to Luxembourg, and we are inviting him to come back
in the parade and join us, and we're gonna thank
him for his service and welcome him home. So it's
going to be a bit of a celebration.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
How many floats did he get, Probably about.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Eight or nine floats. Each of the dance schools puts
together a float, and then there's a couple of the
Shamrock Club, the sponsoring organization does a nice little float,
as does the West Town Association, which is the business
district west of the Milwaukee River, and there are co
sponsors and they put together a nice little float as well.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So some of these things that are going on, they're
actually performing as the parade is going in.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh absolutely absolutely again as a prede director. That's one
of my challenges is to especially the dance schools, to
have they want to stop and do a little quick performance,
and then I gotta keep marching along, keep the parade
running down and running down the street and not developed
too many gaps.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It sounds stressful, darling.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Most of most of them will know the routine by now.
With a little gentle prodding, they they'll get it. Get
it here again.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You know, I did interview the Saint Patrick's Milwaukee Day
Parade once before. I can't remember how many years ago,
but I have interviewed you guys before. Saint Patrick's Day
is a big thing in this country. Okay, so let's
see there's a pre party and after party.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
There isn't we have a whole weekend full of full
of activities here uh Our. I mentioned the West Town Association,
the Business district downtown. They're hosting a pre parade party
Friday nights at a pub on MLK Drive called the
Lucky Clover Irish pub that murns Friday evening from five
(06:07):
point thirty to nine. There will be entertainment and drink
specials and a raffle in the whole nine yards. Then
next Saturday. On parade morning, we start off with an
annual mass, our thirty eighth annual Mass in honor of
Saint Patrick that occurs on the south side of Milwaukee
at Saint Patrick's Church, seventh in West Washington Street, and
(06:30):
that begins at eight thirty in the morning. We have
one of the bagpipe bands providing music for that, and
there's a choir and readings. The mass readings are done
in both Irish and English, both Gaelic and English. It's
it's a gorgeous event every year. Then, of course we
get to the parade itself kicks off at noon and
again the starting point on that is the corner of
(06:52):
MLK Drive and Wisconsin Avenue. And then after the parade
actually beginning at two o'clock two to six, the Shamrock
Club hosts a post parade party and that takes place.
That takes place at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center
at twenty first in West Wisconsin Avenue. It's the former
(07:14):
Congregationalist church that was purchased a bunch of years ago
and turned into a community center as well.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Do you have any idea how many people might attend this?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Oh, that's an excellent question. Obviously the police stopped giving
you know, crowded six years and years ago. I just
say many thousands. The mile and a quarter route is
pretty well aligned with people from one end to the other,
especially as you may want to understand in front of
the pubs up and down the up and down the route.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, I've always thought that pubs and Saint Patrick's Day
go together for some reason.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Well, you know, it's interesting if you look at the
history of Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland. Until fairly recently,
Saint Patrick's Day was a holy day as oppost Tola
Holiday in Ireland. The pubs weren't closed in Ireland until
oh good lord, I think the late seventies, early eighties.
(08:13):
Until that point there was nothing, and interestingly enough, there
weren't really parades in Ireland as well. And they finally
wised up as people from all over the world, especially
the States, would come to Ireland to celebrate Saint Patrick's
Day and they didn't find the celebrations they would find
at home, and the tourism people said, well, we got
(08:34):
to do something about that. So, if you want to
think about it this way, the US actually exported Saint
Patrick's Day parades back to Ireland.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, I have thought about it that way. It's different.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, you know what, We've been doing St Patrick's state
parades here in the US since the early seventeen hundreds.
One source that I I read points to the first
celebration of St. Patri's Day in the US, or actually
in America because it predates the US. A group called
(09:10):
the Society of Charitable Irish in Boston held the first
celebration there in seventeen thirty seven. New York dates back
to seventeen sixty two, with Irish soldiers that at that
point were serving in the British Army.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Okay, are you Irish? I do?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We bet? Yeah, lucky everybody HEINZ fifty seven. But the
Irish have more fun than any of the other people
that I'm related to. So I claim that with the
last name of Boyle.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I have to. Okay, Dylan, I've enjoyed the interview. We'll
get this posted and hopefully people will get to listen
to it and get some information on the parade and
where the park and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
If you happen to think about oh, if you want to,
as you post it, the parade website is Saint Patrick's
Parade with the words saints spelled out Saint Patrick's Parade
obviously no apostrophe on Patrick's. You can't have that on
a web address Saint Patrick's Parade dot or or RG
(10:12):
dot org. If you want to link that in your
description to the.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah I found it, I will.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And and when you
get it posted, if you would do me the favor
of just sending me a link to it so I
can share it around here
Speaker 1 (10:29):
We'll do Mike, you, thank you, Bye bye bye
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