The story
Mystic Irish Parade in Mystic
The Mystic Irish Parade marches through downtown Mystic, Connecticut, each March, organized by the volunteer-run Mystic Irish Parade Foundation. Held on a Sunday near St. Patrick's Day, the parade runs from Mystic Seaport to the Mystic Museum of Art with roughly ninety units and close to two thousand marchers. More than thirty thousand spectators line the route for bagpipe bands, floats, and a Grand Marshal and Grand Colleen court, with proceeds supporting local charities.
Mystic is not an Irish enclave in the way South Boston or Yonkers are, yet for one Sunday each March the small Connecticut shipbuilding village fields a parade that draws crowds many times its own population.