Thousands of people lined Skillman Avenue Sunday afternoon for the 27th annual St. Pat’s for All Parade, which celebrated diversity, inclusivity and New York’s migrant community.
St. Pat’s for All, founded 26 years ago as a protest against the exlusion of LGBTQ groups from the 5th Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan, has evolved into one of the biggest days of the Sunnyside calendar, drawing over 100 groups and more than 1,000 participants.
The parade followed its traditional route, kicking off at 1 p.m. from its starting point at 43rd Street and Skillman Avenue before progressing down Skillman and finishing at the intersection of 58th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside.
Over 100 groups participated in the annual parade, including a vibrant mix of cheerleading squads, drum corps, multicultural groups, Irish marching bands and Irish dance troupes that brought a cacophony of sounds to Skillman Avenue.
“Star Trek” actress Kate Mulgrew and Irish Repertory Theatre co-founders Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly served as grand marshalls for the 2026 parade, which paid tribute to Malachy McCourt, a “staunch supporter” of St. Pat’s for All who died last year.
Several groups also marched behind banners with political messages, including calls for a Free Palestine and “No War in Iran” after the U.S. and Israel launched thousands of air strikes across Iran on Saturday, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Other groups participating in the march displayed banners like “Gays against Guns,” “Abolish Nuclear Weapons” and “Abolish ICE.”
Meanwhile, the event’s customary pre-parade rally featured a number of rousing speeches from prominent Irish and New York City politicians, many of whom celebrated New York’s migrant community amid increased federal immigration enforcement.
Eamon Gilmore, the former leader of the Irish Labour Party and a former EU special representative for Human Rights, described St. Patrick as a “model for inclusion and diversity.”
Colum Eastwood, a Member of Parliament representing Derry City and the former leader of Northern Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), said he had been asked to send a message to St. Pat’s for All on behalf of the families of the Bloody Sunday victims, who were shot dead by British soldiers as they marched unarmed for civil rights in Derry in 1972.
“The families of the Bloody Sunday victims have asked me to come and send you a message,” Eastwood said. “A message of solidarity to every single person – citizen or non-citizen – standing up against ICE and the illegal detention of our people.
“As you have always stood with us, we stand with you,” he continued. “We shall overcome.”
Meanwhile, Micky Murray, the first openly gay Lord Mayor of Belfast who served as grand marshal at the 2025 parade, said cultures are strongest when they “include everyone.”
“There is no contradiction between being proudly Irish and being proudly inclusive,” Murray said. “That means welcoming every immigrant community. It means celebrating our LGBTQ+ community as a valued and equal part of our Irish family, and it means creating a culture where no one is ever told that they don’t belong.”
Several local elected officials also spoke at the pre-parade rally, leading crowds in chants such as “abolish ICE” and “No hate, No Fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
Assembly Member Claire Valdez said St. Pat’s for All was about accepting neighbors “no matter where they come from.”
“It’s about standing together against forces trying to rip us apart,” Valdez said. “(It is) celebrating what makes this neighborhood and our community beautiful.”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards told the crowd that diversity is the borough’s strength and said participants in the 2026 St. Pat’s for All Parade would march for those who could not march themselves.
“We’re going to continue to stand up for our immigrant communities, LGBTQIA+ communities. We will continue to march against this tyranny and people who want to divide us,” Richards said.
Council Member Julie Won, on the other hand, praised the local Sunnyside and Woodside communities for standing up for migrant and LGBTQ communities. She added that her office has helped organized rapid response training for over 2,000 people to help push back against federal immigration authorities and vowed that she is “just getting started.”
“We will continue to fight for the safety of every single one of our neighbors,” Won said.
Attorney General Letitia James, who styled herself as “Letitia Jameson” for the afternoon, said St. Pat’s for All was an event where people come together “united as one” against hate and discrimination.
Over a dozen local elected officials, including State Sen. Michael Gianaris; Assembly Members Jessica González-Rojas and Catalina Cruz; Council Members Shekar Krishnan and Linda Lee; and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso also spoke at the rally.
But there was a time when the St. Pat’s for All organizing committee struggled to receive support from elected officials or large swaths of the local community.
Danny Dromm, a co-founder of St. Pat’s for All and a former City Council Member, noted that the parade is “very different” from when it first launched 26 years ago.
“Very few people were on the street. Now, it’s packed,” Dromm said. “The parade has grown. The community has welcomed it.”
The 5th Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade has since reversed its ban on LGBTQ groups, while the Staten Island Parade began allowing LGBTQ groups to march under their own colors last year, with organizers noting that every parade in the city now allows the LGBTQ community to participate.
Although the original inspiration for the protest has now been resolved, organizers believe that St. Pat’s for All remains an opportunity to stand in solidarity with other groups marginalized by society or politicis, including the immigrant and trans community. The parade is also a hugely popular event on the annual Sunnyside calendar.
“It’s a wonderful day enjoyed by everybody,” Dromm said. “I think it’s really important to our immigrant communities, especially in this time and in this country, that we should up and support them.”
