This year, Yonkers will welcome Caitriona Clarke as the grand marshal of the 64th annual Yonkers St. Patrick’s Parade on McLean Avenue. Clarke, who serves as chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Aisling Irish Community Center and is a McLean Avenue business owner, hails from Drumshanbo in County Leitrim, Ireland.
She is one of four children born to Breedge and the late Leo Kenny. She attended Marymount College in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, and continued her studies in at Patrick’s College in Drumcondra, Dublin. After achieving her bachelor’s degree in education, she moved to Tokyo where she taught at Seisen International School for several years.
Upon her return to Ireland in 1994, Caitriona settled in Galway where she took up a permanent teaching post at Bawnmore National School in Claregalway, traveling between a number of schools as a learning support teacher. She continued her studies at NUI-Galway, where she completed her H. Dip and master’s degree in special education focusing on early intervention for children with learning difficulties.
In 2005, she was seconded by the department of education to work as a facilitator for the implementation of a new curriculum in Irish primary schools.
While on vacation in Spain in 2007, she met Yonkers businessman and fellow Leitrim native Seamus Clarke. She moved to Yonkers in 2008 and the following year, Seamus and Catriona married in St. Barnabas Church. Caitriona and Seamus reside in Yonkers where they manage the popular J.P. Clarke’s Saloon on McLean Avenue.
Together with her husband, Caitriona has become involved in numerous community projects, most recently assisting Pastor Bob and Jean Boehler with the organization of St. Mark’s annual Oktoberfest. As members of the McLean Avenue Merchants Association, they were active participants in setting up both the McLean Avenue Fall Festival and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on McLean Avenue. They said they are grateful to the parade board who helped these community events grow.
Caitriona became involved in fundraising for the Aisling Center shortly after her arrival in New York, and also helped run the annual J.P. Clarke’s Golf Outing, which raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for the organization over 20 years. Caitriona became an active board member of the Aisling Irish Community Center in 2011 and was elected vice chairperson in 2015.
In 2017, she was elected board chairperson upon the retirement of outgoing Chair Agnes Delaney. Her vision and strategic planning with the Board of Directors is taking the Aisling Center in a progressive direction to serve the community.
While her appointment as grand marshal of the Yonkers St. Patrick’s Day Parade on McLean Avenue is a great honor for Caitriona and her family, she said she is accepting this honor on behalf of fellow Aisling Irish Community Center board members, staff and volunteers – both past and present – who have made this community center what it is today.
Caitriona has been instrumental in the recent purchase of the Aisling Center’s building, which it has been renting since its formation in 1996. This acquisition is wonderful and historic news for the center and has been received with great pride and joy in the neighborhood. The building will not only add more space for its programs and services, but guarantees that the Aisling Irish Community and Cultural Center will be around for many years to come by providing the long-term welfare for the Irish and Irish-American community it serves.
Expanding the Aisling Center building, along with its programs and services, will take a lot of hard work, dedication and commitment over the coming months. Caitriona said she relishes the challenge and is proud to lead the Board of Directors, staff and volunteers in securing its path to success, ensuring that the Aisling Irish Community and Cultural Center has a permanent home on McLean Avenue for future generations.
The 2019 aides to the grand marshal are Bridgette (Murray) Arpa, Edward Corbett, Arthur Doran III, Michael Flynn, Sean Fogarty, Catherine (O’Connell) Hopkins, Margaret Kelly and Robert Stauf.
The 64th annual Yonkers St. Patrick’s Parade on McLean Avenue will take place Saturday, March 24. This parade marks the sixth marching since the merger of the Yonkers St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the McLean Avenue Merchant’s Association St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
The official installation of the aides for the 2019 Parade will take place Saturday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. at a gala celebration in the Good Time Room at the Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway, 810 Yonkers Ave.
On March 23, prior to the start of the parade, a Mass will be celebrated at St. Barnabas High School Chapel on McLean Avenue at 11:15 a.m. At 1 p.m., after the Mass, marchers will step off on the “Emerald Mile” west of Bronx River Road.
