Are things looking greener this weekend?
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, La Presse, CultMTL.
The Île-aux-Tourtes bridge will be closed all weekend, so there’s no way to leave the island, we’re all trapped. Traffic notes from Radio‑Canada.
Sunday, part of de Maisonneuve will be closed for the 199th St Patrick’s parade, being held on the proper day for once, and going west to east, unlike the street’s usual direction. Starts at noon at Fort and de Maisonneuve. Notes on street closures for the parade.
Ian 09:52 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
I guess they can’t hold it on Ste Kitty anymore because of construction … when was the last time the parade was on Ste Kitty? Will it ever be reopened?
Kate 10:51 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
In 2019 it was on Ste‑Catherine.
That was counted as the 196th annual parade, but then 2020 and 2021 were cancelled because Covid. (2022’s was scaled down, with people walking but no floats, and last year’s was billed as being “back to normal” with floats.) So I’m not sure why this one counts as 199th since no parade was held for two years.
Ian 12:36 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
I had wondered about that too. I suspect that it might have something to do with the longstanding claim that Montreal’s is the longest consecutively-running St Paddy’s parade in N. America.
Jim 18:36 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
It was also on Ste-Catherine last year.
Kate 09:41 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
Jim, you’re right. But it only extended from Fort to Metcalfe, which I remember thinking was kind of pointless.
qatzelok 19:19 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
Thank goodness that Dorion’s St. Patrick’s day parade is so lackluster.
Missing nothing by not going.
CE 19:26 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
Cool story bro.
Kate 19:53 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
Weirdly, Hudson has had a parade, and a video report by CBC talks about how the closed Île‑aux‑Tourtes bridge may keep people away this year. CBC also has a piece on how Rawdon is planning three days of festivities for Saint Patrick.
I find it all a bit odd. I don’t think most of these people even realize Ireland is an actual modern‑day country – I think for a lot of them it might as well be Middle-earth.
Ian 17:59 on 2024-03-17 Permalink
Why don’t you think there would be Irish people outside the city?
Kate 13:46 on 2024-03-18 Permalink
Me? It’s not a matter of whether its inside or outside the city. But Hudson and Rawdon are small, and does anyone know what they’re celebrating?
I haven’t been to the parade in a few years but I’ve had the oddest conversations with people attending it. The parade marshals wear the United Irish Societies logo with the “Faith and Fatherland” motto, and I asked a couple of them which faith and which fatherland, and they had no idea. Likewise, I talked to one young woman who told me she was Irish. She didn’t sound Irish, so I asked her which part of Ireland she was from, and she seemed to find the question – pointless? Annoying? Completely irrelevant?
I suppose I find it odd that we have this parade to celebrate a nationality most people here don’t share, and if you asked them who the president of Ireland is, and who their prime minister is, and what issues the country is currently facing, they would look at you as if you were trying to make them talk about the rural economy of Narnia.