St. Patrick’s celebration showcases charity, patriotism

Friday, March 7, 2003 | 2:41 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: March 8, 2003

In the black and white world of the U.S. Census Bureau, 162,288 Clark County residents -- 11 percent of the population -- are of Irish descent and another 24,422 -- 2 percent of the population -- have Scotch-Irish ancestors.

But those figures will pale under the green hue that will be cast downtown March 15 when the Las Vegas Sons of Erin host their 37th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade beginning at 10 a.m. on Fourth Street.

For a few hours 100 percent of the crowd will be Irish -- at least at heart.

"Everybody on that day is 'O'Somebody,' " said St. Patrick's Parade Chairman Mike Scanlon. "St. Patrick's Day is an excellent opportunity to promote our heritage and our contributions, and to say thank you to the community."

And while the event will feature the traditional imbibing, "Kiss me, I'm Irish" buttons and the wearin' o' the green, the parade and post-parade block party have a deeper civic significance, officials said.

"Each year the money we raise from concessions at the block party help a number of charities," Sons of Erin President Ken Conners said. "While we do other fund-raisers throughout the year, including golf and bowling tournaments, the block party is our biggest fund-raiser."

The Sons of Erin declined to say how much this year's day-long block party under the Fremont Street Experience canopy is expected to raise, but past St. Pat's parade entry fees, block party and dinner-dance proceeds have raised between $15,000 to $16,000 a year.

Charities benefiting from St. Patrick's Day proceeds include the Boy Scouts, Nevada Children's Cancer Fund, St. Jude's Ranch for Children, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and agencies that assist sufferers of multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

Some of the money raised will also enable the Sons of Erin to feed as many as 300 low-income senior citizens at Christmas, Conners said.

In addition to having fun with such parade entrants as the zany Shriner clowns, officials also are emphasizing patriotism amid heightened security.

"We hope to show unity, not just among Irish-Americans, but among all Americans," Conners said. "Some of our parade entrants are from the military and from veterans organizations. The Nellis Air Force Base Color Guard once again will lead the parade."

Jim Ermi, secretary of the Sons of Erin, said extra security measures have been taken amid heightened awareness of potential terrorist activities.

"Metro Police will be out in force and we have increased the number of parade marshals for crowd control," Ermi said. "Many of the parade marshals are from our local veterans organizations.

"And our grand marshal this year is Sheriff Bill Young, so we feel we are well protected," Ermi added.

The Sons of Erin group formed in Las Vegas in 1966 and the organization conducted its first St. Patrick's Day parade that year. The group now has about 300 members.

One presence missing from this year's festivities will be longtime Las Vegas Sun columnist Joe Delaney, a founding member of the Sons of Erin and longtime parade supporter, who died last August.

"We thought about honoring Joe this year, but if we made a big deal about him we feared he would come back and haunt us," said Scanlon, a lifelong Las Vegan and longtime friend of Delaney's. "Joe did not do good things for glory's sake. He would not have approved of us making a big deal about him."

Instead, the committee put a mention of his passing in the parade program, honoring Delaney as they would any other deceased longtime member. Also, a donation was made to a charity in Delaney's name.

But parade officials said those small tokens in no way diminish Delaney's importance to the organization.

"Joe opened many doors for us to the news media and every year he got the word out about the parade," Scanlon said, noting Delaney long appeared on parade floats as St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. "His contributions to the Sons of Erin and to his community were just awesome."

A crowd of about 30,000 or greater is expected to view the two-hour parade that will start at Gass Avenue and continue northward to Ogden Avenue, where it will disband.

More than 100 entries, 50 floats and 1,500 participants are expected, including former Sons of Erin President Thomas Lally, who will portray St. Patrick for a third straight year. Lally replaced Delaney as St. Patrick after Delaney stepped down because of health reasons.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who calls himself Mayor O'Goodman on St. Patrick's Day, was grand marshal last year and is expected to participate this year, city officials said.

Streets in and out of the area will be closed to traffic early in the day.

The block party, which for many years has been held in the Sahara Hotel parking lot across from the hotel on Paradise Road was moved this year to the downtown area because of construction of the monorail on the Sahara parking lot annex.

The Sons of Erin holiday festivities conclude Monday with a 6 p.m. dinner dance at the Sahara featuring traditional Irish music from Brendan Bowyer and the Royal Irish Show Band. The cost is $35 per person.