Jason Savio

Worcester certainly has the luck of the Irish on its side. Come this St. Patrick’s Day, there will be plenty to do around town leading up to and on the holiday. So, get on your green and pour a pint. Here are a few of the happenings you can check out this year.

Worcester County St. Patrick’s Parade

It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day in Worcester without the Worcester County St. Patrick’s Parade. Even though the parade doesn’t actually happen on St. Patrick’s Day, it will surely set the tone for the month as a whole. The rain-or-shine parade will take place 12 p.m. on March 10th, beginning at the intersection of Mill Street and Park Avenue and ending at the intersection of Highland Street and Park Avenue.

Now in it’s 37th year, the annual event is still going strong thanks to the Worcester County St. Patrick’s Day Committee, a group of volunteers who oversee it and help put it together. Mary Ellen Murphy, chairman of the committee, credits the committee’s dedication to the parade as the reason for its longevity.

“(It’s) keeping the Irish heritage going from generation to generation,” she said. “The same people have been on the committee–one gentleman has been on it since it started. It’s a good cause to celebrate the Irish heritage and it’s a fun day,” Murphy added.

Just because it may be an “Irish” themed parade, Murphy made it clear that it is a parade for everyone to enjoy.

“It’s not just about the Irish anymore. It has become very diverse now,” she said.

What can you expect to see in the parade? Just about every corner of Worcester, with a good dash of Irish charm thrown in.“Stilt walkers, Irish wolf hounds—ginormous dogs that are like little ponies—Irish dancers, the Railers,” Murphy said, naming just a few from a list that also includes Shriners Hospitals for Children.“It will be a lot. It will be a nice parade,” she said.

If you are interested in being part of the committee, Murphy said that they are welcoming anyone to join.“Our committee is getting older and smaller,” Murphy said. “You don’t have to be Irish to join the parade committee”, she added.

Derek Warfield & the Young Wolfe Tones

There will be a treat in town for those who are looking for some live Irish music in a setting where they can have a pint. On March 14th, at 7 p.m., famed Irish musician and songwriter Derek Warfield will take to the stage with his band the Young Wolfe Tones at the Worcester Hibernian Cultural Center located at Fiddler’s Green Pub.

Derek Warfield has been performing and recording music since the 60s and has made connections in the Worcester area that are bringing him back here this year.

Brendan Keenan, a local musician who runs the Irish music website CelticWorcester.com, first met Warfield when his own Irish band, Fergus, opened for him years ago. For the show at Fiddler’s Green Pub, Keenan will be onstage next to Warfield. “(It’s) music that really tells the history of Ireland and sometimes people call it Irish patriotic music,” Keenan said, describing Warfield’s songs. “Derek is also a historian of Irish history so he will be telling a lot of stories about that at the concert,” he added.

Proceeds from the show, after expenses, will go to the St. John’s Church’s Food for the Poor program and the Worcester County St. Patrick’s Day Parade, according to CelticWorcester.com. Keenan will also be performing live Irish music with Mike Ladd at the Ballot Box on Parade Day.

“In the Irish music community, I think we’re lucky that that the bands in the area are friends with each other and we all work together,” said Keenan. “We do this all year, it’s not just St. Patrick’s Day. We kind of make the case that Irish music sounds good at any month, during any season,” he said.

“When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” Choir Concert

If you just want a change of pace after having a pint of Guinness and cheering on the Irish Wolf Hounds, there is the “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” choir concert at the Trinity Lutheran Church on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, at 4 p.m.

Sung by Diamonds in the Dust, a non-profit professional vocal ensemble based out of Worcester, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” will feature performances of classical pieces and other, more familiar songs. The first piece is by Estonian composer, Arvo Part, called “The Deer’s Cry” and is a six-minute vocal work that is “on the words that legend says St. Patrick penned or made up,” according to Mark Mummert, artistic director of the choir. The second piece is an 11-minute choral arrangement by a British composer, Tarik O’Regan, called “The Spring,” and tells the story of two angelic Irish characters and their encounter with St. Patrick.

“Both of the pieces are St. Patrick in origin, and the piece by O’Regan has traditional Gaelic words in it,” said Mummert. “It is mostly English but there is a whole section in the middle that is old Irish language,” he said.

Those two pieces are the “highlights,” as Mummert described them.

“We’ll also do two more sets of beloved Irish melodies arranged for choir like ‘Oh, Danny Boy’ and ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,’” he said.

Having started in 2016, this will be Diamonds in the Dust’s first St. Patrick’s Day concert, and one that Mummert hopes that everyone will come out to see.

“We’re going to particularly reach out to the Irish community here in Worcester, which is a very large segment of our population here, and hope that the Irish community comes out with everybody else,” he said.