In 1992, Cork made history when its St Patrick’s parade included the first-ever LGBT float to take part, which also won best new entry in that year’s parade. The day after the parade, March 18th, Mary Maher reported from New York that around 500 ILGO members marched before the main parade, under heavy police escort. Brendan Fay, an ILGO spokesman said, “This day, March 17th, 1993, will go down as the saddest St Patrick’s Day in New York history. It has a much bigger voting bloc in New York than the Irish community and that’s very important to politicians . Guinness pulled its sponsorship from the New York parade, and Heineken and Sam Adams pulled theirs from the Boston parade.

Source: The Irish Times March 15, 2020 06:56 UTC