In its 61st year, Miller Place-Rocky Point St. Pat's Parade An Institution

In its 61st year, Miller Place-Rocky Point St. Patrick’s Day Parade, set to take place this Sunday, March 13, has become an institution that brings the community together like no other event.

“It’s become more than about it being just a parade," said Walter Colleran, Parade Chairman and Chairman of the Friends of Saint Patrick. "It’s about a community enjoying itself in a big way every year. Saint Patrick has become the vehicle for that to happen."

Colleran, who owns the Colleran Insurance Agency in Rocky Point, added, “The parade is just so many things. It’s a rite of spring, it’s a giant tailgate party, when we expect 45,000-50,000 people to come and see it.”

Each year, Miller Place and Rocky Point Schools' marching bands participate in the parade, along with other regulars: the Suffolk County Police Emerald Society's Pipe and Drum Band, Colonial Fife and Drum, Peconic Warpipes and the Kerry Kearney Blues Band. This year the Stony Brook Marching Band, 150 strong, will be joining as well.

Colleran said the logistics of booking such bands, who will be playing at other St. Patrick's functions, makes it imperative that the Rocky Point Parade go on, no matter what. Despite March being the type of month that can have a sixty degree day on one hand and a snow storm on the other, Colleran said that since the parade's inception, only one parade had to be postponed, due to snow.

"We certainly have marched in bad weather, but to set the parade back another week, say, the parade would probably only be half its original size because of the marchers' other commitments," he said.

Well, the parade is big—not only in size, but in length.

"If Huntington's St. Patrick's Day Parade is actually older than ours," Colleran said, "ours is the longest…about two and a half miles."

The parade begins at 1 p.m. in Miller Place at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Route 25A, goes to the intersection of Broadway and 25A in Rocky Point, where it makes a brief turn north to end at .

At noon, the parade route will be closed to traffic by the Suffolk County Seventh Precinct.

The green stripe down the center of the road and the regularly spaced shamrocks are laid down by the Town of Brookhaven. The responsibility for the upkeep of the road lies with the town as well as the Department of Transportation.

The parade began back in 1950s, when the Friends of Saint Patrick was founded, and its members asked local business to donate a float or money to create a parade.

A newspaper article of the time, "Irish Get Green Light at 'Shamrocky Pt.,'" related that "nearly 1,000 persons turned out for a three-mile parade followed by a community sing of melodies from the Ould Sod."

Friends of Saint Patrick was founded by John Sullivan and George Faulkner, who directed that first parade. William McCarrick (of the McCarrick's Dairy family) was Master of Ceremonies. George McMullen of the Brookhaven Town Police,  "saw to it that the traffic lights along the route stayed green.

“Peggy McKenna, the Queen of St. Patrick's Day, was driven in an 85-year-old carriage by its owner Francis Breet, a Port Jefferson Station taxi operator." the article added.

The parade still looks to local businesses to support it, as well as seeking out marching bands of different types. It costs $150 to have a float in the parade.

"Every Febraury we send out invitations to the businesses who have participated the previous year," Colleran said.

Colleran said the parade costs about $40,000 a year to run.

"We just had our Annual Cocktail Party at the East Wind Inn, at the end of February," he said. "Last year we had our first golf outing, at Calverton Golf Links, in September. We'll have another golf outing this year, too, probably also at Calverton."

This year's parade Queen is Mary Cummings--whose father, Tom, leads the Peconic Warpipes. Ladies in Waiting are Kathryn Sullivan and Colleen Gilroy. Neil Maguire is Grand Marshall.

After 60 successful parades, no matter who has been involved through the years, the tradition remains strong and the 61st should be no different.