St. Patricks Day 2018
It is impossible at this time of year not to think of my mother, who was Irish to her core, in ways both good and bad. She was a Cavanagh, and it was she who took me by the hand to my very first St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade, which also happened to be the first to be held on State Street.This was in 1956, and I don\u2019t remember, though can logically assume, that new Mayor Richard J. Daley led the parade. But I have always remembered something my mother told me that day.\n\nShe was not smiling as were the hundreds around us as the parade passed, and when I asked, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you happy?\u201d she said, \u201cThe Irish have not always had a happy time of it.\u201d ChicagoTribunme