Scituate, Massachusetts - the "Most Irish Town in America" - to honor legend at St. Patrick's Day Parade
SCITUATE - It's been called "the most Irish town in America." In a 2010 census, almost half of all the residents in Scituate, Massachusetts reported Irish ancestry. That's more than any other town in the country.
That heritage can mostly be traced back to Irish Mossing, an industry that exploded during the 1800s when Irish immigrants began harvesting and selling seaweed from Scituate's five beaches. So it's no surprise this town has its own St. Patrick's Day Parade.
"The Irish Riviera"
"The South Shore is considered the Irish Riviera. What better place to have an Irish parade?" parade organizer Ed Kelley told WBZ-TV.
Kelley has organized the parade for the last 25 years. It takes him and a team of 15 people to plan the $60,000 show that stretches 2.3 miles from the town common to the harbor. Kelley said one tradition that has never changed is "The Rose."
"The rose is a symbolic person who embodies goodness in the town. We thought, 'Why don't we bring back the original Rose 30 years later? Because she's still here, 83 years old," Kelley explained.
That would be Faith Bowker-Maloney, the Rose in the first ever Scituate St. Patrick's Day Parade back in 1994 on Minot Beach.
"It's one of my favorite holidays because you can go out and celebrate. You don't have to buy any presents for people. You just go out and celebrate and there's a lot of love shown, and everybody is having a good time," Bowker-Maloney told WBZ.
Scituate's original Rose
Bowker-Maloney truly is a symbol of goodness in Scituate. She's planted public gardens and was a first grade teacher in town for many years. She even volunteered with the Red Cross during the Blizzard of '78.
"There's a fantastic feeling in Scituate about helping each other," she said.
Now, exactly 30 years later, she'll reclaim her role as the Rose. But this time around, Bowker-Maloney will trade in the red BMW she rode in back in 1994 for a Cinderella carriage pulled by two Clydesdales, named Ritz and Kramer, out of Hobby Knoll Stables in Duxbury.
"I've got three generations riding with me, that's another thing I'm proud of. That I lived to see six generations of my family and I'm going to have three of them in my carriage," said Bowker-Maloney.
She's proud of her family, and her special seaside community, that loves celebrating its Irish beginnings.
"Even our harbor, if you look at it from the air, it's a heart shape, so it really is a town with a heart," said Bowker-Maloney.
St. Patrick's Day parade Sunday
The Scituate St. Patrick's Day Parade is this Sunday, March 17 at 1 p.m.