CLE Irish

Congratulations, to the 2026 St. Patrick's Day Honorees

The structure behind the parade reinforces this. The event is organized by the United Irish Societies of Greater Cleveland, which was formed in 1958 to coordinate parade planning and has managed the parade since. The parade’s long-running success is not accidental; it is maintained through volunteer systems, organizational memory, and the often-invisible work of people who understand that a tradition lasts only if people keep showing up to do the backstage work.

Every sound, the groan of iron, the whistle of steam, rose and settled in his chest. His name was Michael Sammon, and the year was 1915. He had just returned from Colorado, where he had taken his wife, Anne, hoping clean air might ease the illness closing her lungs.

launching on May 25, 2026, bringing the total number of direct flights from Ireland to the U.S. to 24.

The story begins in Ballysallagh, a townland within the village of Doolin on Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast in County Clare, a place the family remembers as breathtakingly beautiful, with rolling green fields, stone walls, and music in the air. Patrick Joseph Byrnes was born there in 1902, the second of 14 children and the oldest son.