Photos by Steve Ellmore
The sky was clear and the streets were filled with people wearing green on Saturday, March 1, for the 46th annual Nutley Irish American St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The parade is organized and run by the Nutley Irish American Association with help from the township, which lit buildings and lamposts in green on parade eve, and Essex County, which painted a green stripe on the Franklin Avenue parade route. The sunny weather was a nice change from the 2024 parade which was held during a steady rain.
Nutley Irish American Association President Deidre Hollywood posted a note thanking all involved for their efforts and donations.
“The Officers, Trustees, and members of the Nutley Irish start planning and fundraising for the parade in August, and seeing the smiles of the spectators and marchers makes all the hard work worthwhile,” she said. “It was a beautiful day for a parade, and the energy of the crowd was electric.”
The day started with an Investiture Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s before the parade stepped off at Holy Family at 1 p.m. The parade route was down Harrison Avenue, before going north up Franklin Avenue and ending on Chestnut Street with the review stand in front of John Walker Middle School. A Post Parade Party was held at the Parks & Recreation on Park Avenue.
The grand marshal was John Kaufman, owner of CORE Physical Therapy, the deputy grand marshal was Kevin Smyth, a Washington School teacher and Nutley High School crew coach, the police officer of the year was Brendan Sim of the Belleville Police Department, the member of the year was Mary T. Darragh and the parade queen was Rachel May Hamilton.
The parade is a family tradition for many in town and this year’s roster of dignitaries showed it; Sim’s father, Scott Sim, was a grand marshal and his sister, Morgan Grande, was a parade queen. Hamilton is the daughter of a former grand marshal and sister of a deputy grand marshal.
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