Toronto never banned St. Patrick's Day parade

The Cambridge Dictionary says the term urban myth is “a story or statement that isn’t true, but is often repeated, and believed by many to be true.”

- DONOVAN VINCENT

Revellers watch the 1988 St. Patrick's Day Parade in Toronto. It was the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in the city since 1878.

That’s a useful way of describing erroneous reports that have been published in the Toronto Star and elsewhere for several decades about how St. Patrick’s Day was “banned” by our city.

Now we have to go back and correct the record.

St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of the patron saint of Ireland and all things Irish. It’s a joyous day with parades, where folks dress up in green outfits, typically adorned with shamrocks. Alcohol — green beer for many — usually flows and hugs typically abound.

Aside from positive stories about merriment on the streets, the Star ran a freelance opinion feature last month for St. Patrick’s Day on why our city “banned” the St. Patrick’s Day parade for over 100 years.

The article stated the city banned the parade in 1878 due to violence between Catholics and Protestants.

A short time after the article ran, my office received an email from a third party stating that according to Mark McGowan, professor of history and Celtic studies at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto and a leading historian of this city’s Irish community, the parade was never banned.

So, with assistance from Astrid Lange and Rick Sznajder, experienced researchers from the Star’s library, I looked into this mystery.