Marching Orders: Mystic Irish Parade Set to Go on Sunday

Get ready to get your green on, southeastern Connecticut. The 10th annual Mystic Irish Parade is poised to proceed Sunday at 1 p.m.

A stellar weather forecast (sunny, temperatures in the mid-40s), a record number of units marching and more business floats than ever promise that this will be one of the best-attended parades in the event's history. This year's grand marshal is Town of Groton Police Chief Mike Crowley.

"The first parade I think we had 600 people march. Now we're up to close to 2,000," Mystic Irish Parade Foundation Vice President Neil Ryan said. "Back then, a unit might have been five people carrying a flag. Now it's 50 carrying 50 flags. So the caliber of the marching group has improved as well."

Ryan credits the foundation's board for how quickly it has grown.

 "I definitely want to thank all my fellow board members," he said. "They put in tireless efforts and really support each other to make this possible. It's a tight-knit working group that really leaves politics aside and gets the job done."

Of course, that doesn't mean it's easy to put on.

"It's a tremendous undertaking … the parade is growing quicker than we can grow the organization," Ryan said. "It's more regional now than just Mystic. That was our goal — to make it premier-grade in this part of the state."

Ryan said the growth of the parade has been fueled by the support of local sponsors. What was once an operation funded chiefly by volunteers and board members selling $5 raffle tickets has evolved into a well-supported grass-roots community effort.

"A lot of our sponsors come to us. A lot of them are just so generous, and it's really great to have that support," Ryan said. "That's why the parade is the success it is, because of the sponsors. It's really a win-win for them, us, the community, the people that are in the parade, the people that come to see the parade."

Despite the parade's success, the foundation's board, buoyed by the strong support from the community and business community, has had discussions about taking it up a notch.

"The next piece of the puzzle we're trying to create is a weekend. So on Friday night we might have a 'Meet the Grand Marshal' fundraiser type thing, followed by price-fixed dinner special at all the restaurants to get (parade-goers) involved in some of the food and some of the fare," Ryan said. "And maybe Saturday night we do a concert somewhere. And Sunday we get the restaurants involved and do some sort of lunch thing before the parade and really attract people to come into town early, have lunch, and do a shuttle service from outside town to get people in town and get them back out."

Ryan also mentioned modifying the parade route and increasing the prizes for the best business floats as other ways to improve the parade the board is informally discussing.

The foundation will be selling raffle tickets along the parade route, and Ryan encouraged parade-goers to buy merchandise from approved vendors that have signs identifying them as official Mystic Irish Parade vendors.

Check out the parade route PDF attached to this article for parade start and end points and port-a-potty locations. Here's what else you need to know about the 2013 Mystic Irish Parade:

PARKING

From the Mystic Irish Parade website:

Downtown parking can be found at the Mystic Arts Center Parking lot, 9 Water Street, this is were the parade ends and is signified by the star on the map above.   Lots of additional smaller parking lots can be found along the parade route or on the many side streets along the route, please reference the map above for locations of side streets.  Parking is also plentiful in the Olde Mystic Village parking lot however it is a mile walk from there to the parade route. 

ROAD CLOSURES

Groton and Stonington Police issued the parking and traffic advisories for Sunday's Irish Parade in Mystic, which starts at 1 p.m.

The road closures will occur at approximately 12:30 p.m., and will remain in effect until approximately 30 minutes after the completion of the parade.

The road closures are as listed:

• Rte 27: From Coogan Blvd, to School St.,
• Willow St.: From Rte 27 to Broadway Ave.
• Broadway Ave: From Willow St to East Main St.
• East Main St: From Broadway Ave to the Drawbridge.
• West Main St: From the Drawbridge to High St.,
• Water Street: From West Main St., to New London Rd.
• Pearl Street: From West Main St., to Clift St.,
• Gravel Street: From West Main St., to Clift St.

The Temporary No Parking Order will be effective from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The roads affected as listed. 

• Rte 27: From Coogan Blvd, to School St.,
• Willow St.: From Rte. 27 to Broadway Ave.
• Broadway Ave: From Willow St to East Main St.
• East Main St: From Broadway Ave to the Drawbridge.
• School St.
• Brown St.
• West Main Street: From the Drawbridge to High St. 
• Water Street: From West Main St., to New London Rd.
• High St.: Between New London Rd., and West Main St,
• New London Rd: Between West Main St. and Latham St.
• Bank St.
• Cliff St: West of Pearl St.
• Edgecomb St: Extending a portion of the road west, from Burrows St.
• Library St.: Between West Main St. and Allyn St.
• Orchard Ln                       
• Rowland St.

MYSTIC IRISH PARADE FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS

• Leo Roche (president, founding member)
• Neil Ryan (vice president, founding member)
• Christine Cooney (founding member)
• Tom Taber
• Kevin Power (treasurer)
• Jeff Bresnahan (volunteer coordinator)
• Matt Forde (parade director)
• Stephen O'Rourke
• Laura Capshaw
• Frank Del Campo