Irish or not, everyone has fun at the parade

GOSHEN—She's Polish-Ukranian in ancestry, yet she came out to Goshen once again for the Mid-Hudson St. Patrick's Parade. "I go to all the parades," said Lillian Kostoff, who was wearing a green carnation. "I like the music and I like the spirit. It's all the same." Nereyda Perez said she and Norma Sanchez brought their young children, Alan, Jacqueline, and Sabrina, to the parade because "it's fun for the kids." And of course, there were lots of people of Irish ancestry at the parade, like Laura Lunde and her six-month-old son, Brody, from Florida, and eight-year-old Morgan O'Grady from Blooming Grove. Eleven-year-old Shannon Quinn from Goshen danced in the parade as her Quinn relatives from Blooming Grove and Rock Tavern watched. Former parade Chairman Leo O'Grady told the crowd the origin of the 29th annual parade, which started in Middletown. "We bounced the parade all around various towns in Orange County," he said. "It now looks like they've settled down and made Goshen their hometown. It looks like the parade is going to be here from here on in, so we're glad to see you people are supporting it. And by supporting it, you get to see the parade will stay here and we hope it will." This year was the fourth the parade has marched in Goshen. The grand marshal was James G. Graham Sr. of Warwick, whose son had also been a grand marshal. James served a tour in the U.S. Navy and then for 40 years worked in the engineering profession. James Sr.'s mother was from Limerick City, Ireland. St. Patrick was captured from his native Britain as a teenager in about the year 389 AD, worked for about six years as a shepherd, and then escaped to Gaul, where he studied in a monastery. He returned to Ireland as he neared the age of 60. He is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. According the website www.kidsdomain.com, St. Patrick, whose birth name was Maewyn Succat, used the shamrock to explain the trinity. Munster Division No. 2 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians contributed this quote from Terence McSwiney for the souvenir program: "It is not those who inflict the most, but those who endure the most who will conquer in the end." Some of the Gold Sponsors include John S. Burke Catholic High School; Dana Distributors; Project Children (located in Greenwood Lake, it brings Protestant and Catholic children out from Northern Ireland to live in the U.S.); Delancey's, a Goshen restaurant; Union State Bank; Manhattan Beer Distributors of Harriman; and the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 1 of Monroe.