By Emily Williams
This year, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just a celebration of the patron saint of Ireland. March marks the 100-year anniversary of the Easter Rising, when Irish nationalists launched a rebellion against British rule.
At its annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration, the Birmingham Irish Cultural Society, a local melting pot of Emerald Isle enthusiasts, will pay homage to the centennial.
“Birmingham doesn’t have a whole lot of truly Irish people,” Connors said. “But you don’t have to be Irish to appreciate the country.”
In 1981, Marty Connors and the late Paul McMahon hosted a St. Patrick’s Day dinner in a condo out in what used to be the middle of nowhere.
“You know that intersection between 280 and 459, well, that used to be nothing,” Connors said.
The gathering soon outgrew the small space and was moved around Birmingham, including to the Highland Park Racquet Club and the Redmont Hotel, before settling at Pine Tree Country Club in 2001.
Today the Birmingham Irish Cultural Society is a group of men who aren’t all Irish, but who all enjoy having a good time celebrating Ireland’s most recognizable holiday.
“St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland,” Connors said. “He brought Christianity to the isle. So, this is not about girls in tank tops. Ultimately, it’s the celebration of friendship, fraternity and the patron Saint of Ireland,” which, Connors said, is something every member can appreciate regardless of their heritage.
Illustrating the group’s diversity, this year’s vice co-chairmen are Art McMahon, an Irishman by blood, and Jim Skoney, who is Polish. The group’s historian, Joe Domnanovich, is of Welsh and Croatian descent.
After much debate about whether to add wives to the group’s membership, the society settled on the addition of a women’s
group called the Fenians.
Men become members of the society by invitation, joining the ranks of many notable figures in local society such as Sherriff Mike Hale and Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield. The late George Siebels, former mayor of Birmingham, was a member during the society’s earliest years.
“With that much political involvement, we’ve only had two members incarcerated,” McMahon joked. The group’s annual dinner has become something of a gathering place for politicians seeking support.
“We usually have a larger turnout on election years,” Connors said. “It’s one of those events that you want to stop by when you’re running for something.”
But the political elite aren’t the only special guests who have attended. When the dinner was held at the Fraternal Order of Police on Green Springs, the crowd included farm animals.
“We’ve had goats roaming around the dinner,” Connors said. “One year we even had a cow. We used to have llamas. They aren’t Irish, but we thought, ‘Why not?’”
Llamas proved to be undesirable guests. They were placed near the restrooms and, with their tendency to spit, the animals caused more trouble than they were worth.
As time passed, the dinner became more organized, but it always features Connors’ grandmother’s recipe for Irish stew.
The dinner normally falls on a Friday during Lent, and with many of the attendees being Catholic and unable to eat meat on Fridays during Lent, the dinner is given a special dispensation by the bishop. The first year the group was granted the order, Connors almost got it revoked.
“I went on the local news to promote the dinner and said that we had a special dispensation from the bishop and everybody was allowed to eat meat on Friday,” Connors said. He didn’t realize that his wording made it seem that the bishop had given all of Birmingham the clearance to eat meat on Friday, rather than just those at the dinner party. Luckily, everything was remedied and the dispensation is issued every year.
Starting the Parade
One of the most visible elements of the celebration is the St. Patrick’s Day parade. The parade began in 1985, while the dinner was still held at the condo.
According to Conners, one of the biggest struggles when they first started the parade was finding men who could play the bagpipes.
“People always think that bagpipes are Scottish, but they’re not,” Connors said. “The Scots stole them from us, just like they stole everything else.”
All joking aside, the only people in town Conners could find who could really play the pipes were Scots, so they cut a deal and the men agreed to play on one condition.
“To this day, the Irish Cultural Society’s Irish parade begins with a Scottish band playing “Scotland the Brave,” Connors said. “They had to do that or they wouldn’t march in the parade.” The men don’t seem to mind the invasion, though. They agree that the song is prettier than many of the classic Irish tunes.
Over the years, the downtown parade has changed course, but it goes on rain or shine. One year, the parade went on even after city officials canceled it. The president of the Downtown Action Committee announced on the news that the parade was to be canceled because of inclement weather, but he did that without consulting the group.
“We all said, no,” Conners said. “You do not cancel an Irish parade. I don’t care if there’s a tornado. So, we had a protest parade through the streets of Five Points.”
McMahon added that it is the Irish way to persevere no matter the obstacles.
This year, the 32nd St. Patrick’s Day Celebration and parade will follow the course from Five Points South to Linn Park. The festivities will continue throughout the day with food and drink specials at participating bars and restaurants. The parade itself will begin at 1:30 p.m., traditionally led by the Ian Sturrock Memorial Pipe Band.
The St. Patrick’s Day Dinner will be held March 18 at Pine Tree Country Club. The dinner won’t boast any livestock, but it will have good Irish food, a whiskey tasting and music provided by Dublin-Down. Tickets are $75 per person and will support the organization’s longest-running beneficiary, KidOne Transport.
The dinner has benefited a charity since 1999 and KidOne has been the charity of choice for 12 of those years, adding up to more than $100,000 donated to help transport local children to obtain medical care.
“We have a great time and we joke around, but what this is, at its heart, is a group of people coming together not only to celebrate, but also to give back and do something good for the community,” McMahon said.
For more information on the Birmingham Irish Cultural Society and the 36th annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration dinner, visit the organization’s Facebook page.