BATAVIA — It will be parade time at O’Lacy’s Irish Pub Friday afternoon when a group from Buffalo comes to town.
Members of “D” Co. Buffalo City Guard — Gordon Highlanders will gather at the School Street pub around 3:30 to kick off Batavia’s “shortest” St. Patrick’s Day parade, going around the block and back to O’Lacy’s. The Highlanders will invite anyone they encounter to join them.
Their brief route will take them from School Street onto Jackson Street, then right onto East Main, right onto Center Street and back to the pub.
Highlanders member Susan Brown, who comes to O’Lacy’s a lot with her husband, Kevin, said part of the band will be in Batavia.
“I think we have six pipers, three drummers and four Color Guard (members),” she said of the performers coming here for the parade.
“We have 42 people in the band. We have to break up because we play in all different spots in Buffalo and stuff,” she said. -
Stephanie and Bernie Valento, fellow Highlanders band members, will join the Browns in Batavia on Friday.
“They recruited us out of O’Lacy’s 12 years ago (to join the Highlanders). They live at Lime Lake,” Susan Brown said of the Valentos. “They still come up and frequent O’Lacy’s with us when they can.”
Brown said the pub is usually mobbed on St. Patrick’s Day.
“We’ll get as many people in the bar to come out and participate with us and hopefully get some other people who are out for a walk — whoever we pick up around the block from Eli Fish or any of the other places, just for a fun thing to do,” she said. “My husband and I will be at O’Lacy’s. We’ll wait for the rest of the band and then line up at 3:30 and announce to the people in the bar that we’re doing the parade.”
After the parade, the O’Lacy’s contingent will return to the pub.
“I couldn’t think of a better place to be on St. Patrick’s Day,” Brown said. It’s good that St. Patrick’s Day is on a Friday, because on the weekend, the Highlanders wouldn’t be able to come to Batavia. The South Buffalo St. Patrick’s Day Parade is on Saturday and the city of Buffalo parade Sunday.
“We are the lead band on both,” Brown said.
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