Insurgent, Inclusive St. Patrick’s Day Parade Comes Into Its Own

Brendan Fay pointed to an e-mail on his computer screen from the New York Fire Department’s Emerald Society Pipes and Drums corps confirming that it would be marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Queens, on Sunday. “Now that’s how you know the tide has turned for us,” said Mr. Fay, 54, adding that this would be quite a change from the lone bagpiper that the fledgling parade had most years. Mr. Fay helped found the parade in 2000, and since then he had had trouble finding pipe bands willing to play in this parade whose name, St. Pat’s for All, and theme of inclusion are a swipe at the much larger and older St. Patrick’s Day parade held on Fifth Avenue.