Glenside has been approved for a St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, March 8, 2025. A festival following the parade will feature live Irish bands, food trucks, and vendors.
Noreen (Donahue) McAleer, a Glenside native, has been collaborating with township officials and Jamey Piggott of the Greater Glenside Patriotic Association (which runs the Glenside 4th of July celebration), among others*, to make the event a reality.
“We’re thinking of the same route as the GYAC parade. We’ll start at Renninger Park and head straight down Keswick and end in the Village. That’s where the festival will be,” she said.
Bill Donahue, Noreen’s brother, created the event’s logo.
“The date is set in stone, and it’s definitely happening. The area will be blocked off for the day and there will a number of musical performances,” Bill said.
The Donahues are fit for the task. Bill is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who performs with two Irish bands, one of which will play during the event. Along with the whistles and bagpipes, he also plays the bouzouki.
“It’s a unique instrument that came to Irish music in the 1970s,” he said.
His sister owns the Cummins School of Irish Dance in Glenside and serves as a nationwide Irish dance adjudicator.
“I travel all around the country judging Irish dance competitions, called feis [pronounced fesh], a Gaelic word for competition,” she said.
Organizers will be promoting the event during the Greater Glenside 4th of July Parade via a banner, which will be carried by Cummins School dancers.
A GoFundMe campaign is forthcoming, the Donahues said.
*The Glenside St. Patrick’s Day committee members who have been meeting to plan the event include:
Colleen McDermott, Tom Hendel, Jamey Piggott, Caiti Croke, Noreen McAleer, Megan Glanz, Tom Regan, Linda Gerhard, Jen Eyre, Tim McLoone, Maureen Haff, and Molly Stanton.
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Photos: Cummins School