Boston contests Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day HQ title – but have they forgotten about New York?

All of the American parades quite simply, suck. They are nothing but politicians and plumbers unions with a few bagpipe bands and Irish dancers. I was recently in Derry for Halloween and they had an amazing parade...very professionally orchestrated and symbolic. While I 100% support the amazing Irish culture in Chicago (not all the fake stuff and Irish names that are well known), the music scene especially...no American city has the right to be headquarters of anything Irish...leave that to Ireland.

'THE CHEEK OF THEM' UNITED STATES HEAD QUARTERS OF ALL ST PATRICKS DAY CELEBRATIONS...IM IRISH I LIVE IN IRELAND AND I WAS BORN HERE ... YE NEED TO FOCUS ON YE'RE OWN CULTURE AND CUSTOMS AND CELEBRATE THAT ...AND FORGET ABOUT STEALING OUR CULTURE ...AMERICANS ARE 'OBSESSED' WITH EUROPEANS AND IF THEY ARE NOT TRYING TO STEAL IRISH CULTURE THEY ARE TRYING TO STEAL THE ITALIAN, GERMAN OR FRENCH CULTURE ...WHAT A SAD LOT YE ARE !!!!....JUST BECAUSE YOUR GREAT GRANNYS CAT MOVED TO AMERICA 100 YEARS AGO THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOUR IRISH ..BE HAPPY TO BE AMERICAN FOR GODS SAKE !!!.....BECAUSE POEOPLE OVER HERE IN IRELAND , 'YES' REAL IRISH PEOPLE ..ARE ONLY LAUGHING AT YE !!!

The City of New Orleans hosts the best St. Patrick's Day parade I've ever seen. It's grown as big as any major Mardi Gras parade, in a city that could school any other on how to combine a parade and a good party. Now, New Orleans may not be as famous of an Irish City as NY or Boston, but let me tell U, are the Irish proud and do they ever party full-kilt on Paddy's Day! Come to the uptown parade yourself and you'll see, they don't know how to parade & party in NYC. Not at all! Keep it green!

are ulster unionists allowed to participate?

Dompedro, glad that you see the inevitable outcome of the election--out of the 3,000 voters NYC got 2,480 votes, Boston got 943 votes and Chicago got 10,876 votes. . Thank you all for your interest.

Sooooo..... to whom do you petition? the Pope? the Bishop of Armagh? the Pres of the US? (he's Irish -- I read it here), the mayor of Chicago? ( he's not exactly Irish, but he knows lot of them and then, you also have the mayor of New York), one of the Daleys now that they have access to the White House (need an Irish - American king) --- one thing is for sure, if the votes are counted in Chicago, you already know the results

Why does there have to be a 'HQ' for the parade at all? This is absolutely ridiculous! Being a New Yorker and having attended parades in all three cities, including Dublin; Chicago has to be kidding!!!!!

Boston's parade is quite parochial, confined to a close minded neighborhood. I don't know anything about Chicago. New York's parade traditionally (don't know about now) was inclusive, since it officially celebrated the patron saint of the archdiocese and included margins of various ethic backgrounds reflecting the diversity of NY's parishes. Of course the gay ban dents the diversity issue. Since gays are not banned in Ireland, only US parades allowing gays to march should be considered, such as the one in Queens, NY.