There’s a sound reason East Dundee’s Thom McNamee Memorial St. Patrick’s Day Parade is being held this Saturday, 10 days before the actual holiday.
“We did in fact move up the parade (usually held the Saturday before the holiday) in order to have more entertainment for it,” event entertainment director Lauren Schroeder said. “We wanted to have several groups that represent Irish culture.”
That means that when the parade steps off at 11 a.m. on Water Street and moves through downtown East Dundee, those along the route will be treated to not just one pipe band and one Irish dance troupe but three each, Schroeder said.
“We are welcoming back the Dundee Scottish Pipe Band after a break last year and Chicago Celtic Pipe Band, back for the third year in a row,” she said. “Tunes of Glory Pipes and Drums (from Warrenville) will be participating after several years of being unavailable on our day.”
Dundee Scottish manager Lillian Prince, who’s also a piper, said the West Dundee-based group had some players out with injuries last year but now they’re back in full force.
“As much as we enjoy playing community events, we had a few parades last year that we were unable to do because we would not have had enough players,” Prince said. “This year we are doing two parades this year for St Paddy’s — the one in East Dundee and one in McHenry March 14. We are looking forward to playing them and hoping the weather cooperates.”
They’ll also be playing at Rosie O’Hare’s Public House in East Dundee at 3 p.m. Saturday.
As for dancers, Mayer School of Irish Dancing in Gilberts is a returning favorite, Schroeder said. New to the parade this year will be McNulty School of Irish Dance and World School of Irish Dance.
“We had been asked to be in the East Dundee parade before but were booked for other engagements,” McNulty School founder Barbara McNulty said.
This time, they will have about a half dozen young dancers in the East Dundee parade. The following Saturday, troupe dancers are to be part of the parades in Naperville and Galena, McNulty said.
The St. Patrick’s Day season is always very busy for her students, she said. All told, her stepdancers will be performing at 80 events — 40 on the weekend before the holiday and 30 on March 17.
Back for the East Dundee parade will be crowd favorites, including Chicago’s Jesse White Tumblers and the South Shore Drill Team; steel drum band Culture, Arts and Music, out of Woodstock; life-sized puppets Those Funny Little People from Willowbrook; and some circus performers, Schroeder said.
The parade is named for Thom McNamee, who organized the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in East Dundee from 2006 to 2009, the year he died. His sisters Eileen and Maribeth and other family and friends revived the annual tradition in 2012.
For more information, go to dundeestpats.org.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.