"St. Paddy's Day--When Everyone is Part Irish"

TWO MILLION PEOPLE estimated in Manhattan to participate in St. Patrick's Day celebrations...
Here, young people are already lining up ( line extends forever) for just a very ordinary Irish bar and restaurant before noon...

This is supposedly the 251st St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York...but I don't think it was really much of an occasion before the Irish Catholics began arriving in really big numbers in the middle of the 19th Century ( when they were easily outnumbered by Irish Protestants, who held provocative parades through the Catholic neighborhoods).
The famed Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall was an  Irish Protestant, in fact...
Have just been reading on the internet on the massacres on both sides that go way back in this Catholic and Protestant conflict, especially in Northern Ireland...it is very grim reading.
For today, however, it was all celebration and good times and really nice weather!