Bagpiper Joe Brady, a Peekskill resident, will lead the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade for his 33rd consecutive and final time Thursday, March 17. As the regimental pipe major of the First Battalion, 69th Regiment (the famed Fighting 69th), Brady marches at the head of the parade alongside the regiment commander. He leads the battalion whose soldiers have marched at the front of the 260-year-old parade for the last 161 years. Historically, more than 150,000 others follow the soldiers with some two million spectators cheering them on.
“I have had the honor to lead over 800 soldiers into a packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral to celebrate Mass and then to march in one of the largest parades in the world – a celebration of our Irish religious, ethnic and civic values,” Brady said. “It is incredibly inspiring.”
This year, Brady, 66, will retire from the physically demanding role. The bagpipes and traditional highland dress weigh more than 40 pounds and require an incredible amount of stamina, especially while marching. Brady will bestow the honor upon a young champion bagpiper, Sean Dalgauer, 25, from Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. Like Brady, he is a graduate of Iona College in New Rochelle who started playing the pipes when he was a child.
“Marching with the 69th Infantry Regiment has been so special to me because of its rich military history as the most decorated regiment in the country and its ongoing commitment to giving back to the community,” Brady added. “Sean appreciates the regiment the way I do, and it was the right time and right thing to do for the regiment to pass the baton.”
The 69th Infantry Regiment was informally formed in the 1760s and has served in nearly every major war since the Civil War. In 1851, at a time when Irish immigrants were the targets of bigotry, the 69th Infantry Regiment protected the parade, then in its 89th year.
“Joe Brady is a legend and an icon of the St. Patrick’s Day community,” said Col. Don Makay, who served as the 69th Infantry commander from 2016 to ’19. “It was always an honor to march alongside him and to keep the battalion in sync with his music….He is as much a part of the 69th legacy as the soldiers in uniform. Joe is a soldier at heart, and we will miss his companionship during the parade and throughout the season.”
With a strong Irish and Scottish heritage, Brady started learning the bagpipes from his father at age 7. By 17, he was rated as a professional open-grade bagpiper – an extraordinary achievement at such a young age. The bagpipe is a tricky instrument to master. It is limited to nine notes, which are achieved only by blowing and squeezing, requiring a remarkable amount of endurance.
Brady has earned worldwide recognition as a bagpipe competitor, judge and performer. He’s played for numerous dignitaries and gigged with the Chieftains, Wolftones, Andy Cooney and the High Kings, to name just a few. He played with the Commandant’s Own in Washington, D.C. when Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an honorary member of the Fighting 69th, retired in September 2015.
The bagpipe’s hums and wails have become a symbol of fallen heroes and often evoke powerful emotions ranging from pride to sorrow. For most of his life, Brady has played bagpipes on the occasions most important to people – traditional weddings and funerals, celebrations and military events, which he will continue to do as long as he can.
But first at 6:30 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, Brady will lead the soldiers out of the Lexington Avenue Armory and over to 51st Street for a special Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The soldiers will occupy the southern half of the church as the place of honor. (The battalion commander traditionally joins the adjutant general of New York, the governor of New York and the mayor of New York City in a front pew for the service and the blessing for the regiment’s soldiers.) Following Mass, the battalion marches to 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, the official start of the parade. After the parade, the regiment will name Brady pipe major emeritus.
As one parade participant steps down, new faces swell the ranks. Maria Regina High School’s first-ever marching band will take part in the festivities — the oldest and largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the world – from 1:45 to 3:15 p.m., then joins the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Yonkers from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. (That’s actually St. Joseph’s Day, but we’re sure St. Joe doesn’t mind sharing the day with St. Pat.)
After the parade, enjoy a pint of Guinness – or two – and a wee helping (or more) of Irish soda bread and corned beef and cabbage at Hudson Social in Dobbs Ferry (hudsonsocial.com).
From all of us at WAG, a traditional Irish blessing:
May green be the grass you walk on
May blue be the skies above you
May pure be the joys that surround you
May true be the hearts that love you.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
