STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A new inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade means a previously cancelled political breakfast is back on, the Advance/SILive.com learned Thursday.
The Jerome X. O’Donovan Parade Breakfast co-chairs — District Attorney Michael McMahon, former Assemblyman Michael Cusick and former Councilman Ken Mitchell — issued a joint statement outlining their plans to hold the traditional breakfast March 17 at Jody’s Club Forest ahead of the new, inclusive parade.
“We join the overwhelming majority of our neighbors in expressing our relief at the news that an inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade will finally be held on Staten Island, and we send our sincere thanks to the [Forest Avenue] Business Improvement District (BID) for taking on this tremendous responsibility,” the trio said. “Accordingly, we will once again host our Jerome X. O’Donovan Breakfast within the friendly confines of Jody’s Club Forest before the parade steps off on March 17th.”
Last year, organizers cancelled the 25-year-old breakfast over the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Parade Committee’s longstanding refusal to allow members of the LGBTQ+ community to openly march in the traditional local parade, which is set to be held March 3 this year.
They had planned to cancel the breakfast again this year, but with news of the inclusive parade, the 11 a.m. breakfast is back on serving as the de facto kickoff to the Island’s political calendar with elected officials from across the state flocking to Jody’s Club Forest, located nearby the corner of Forest and Oakwood avenues.
Staten Island St. Patrick’s Parade stepped off at Hart Boulevard and traveled down Forest Avenue to Jewett Avenue. This year’s grand marshal is Martin Crimmins. March 5, 2023. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Staten Island Advance
McMahon, Cusick and Mitchell had tried to distance the breakfast from the exclusionary parade as more and more elected officials refused to march each year, but took the…
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