2020 | Wearin’ of the Green 15
FATHER MICHAEL J. MORONEY
May good and faithful friends be
yours, wherever you may roam.
2019 GRAND MARSHAL
BY MICHAEL SHINGLETON
WHAT A GREAT DAY IT WAS!
Father Michael J. Moroney led the 34th Wearin’
of the Green, St. Patrick’s Day Parade as the
2019 Grand Marshal on Saturday, March 16th.
Fr. Mike, his family and friends showered a record-setting
crowd with beads and blessings on that cooler-thanaverage
March morning.
During the opening ceremony, Fr. Mike had a simple but –
to the point message:
“Have a great day. Enjoy the parade. Have fun and be
safe. God Bless America, and God Bless Ireland.”
It was a symbolic reunion of sorts. Before 2019, it had
been six years since an actual Irishman led the celebration
of St. Patrick in Baton Rouge. Parade Organizers were
thrilled to get back to those roots and to further enhance
the relationship between Baton Rouge and Ireland.
“Fr. Mike has been instrumental in this community in the
betterment of lives, families, their faith and the Diocese
of Baton Rouge,” Pat Shingleton said the morning of
the parade.
For nearly 50 years, Fr. Mike has lived in Louisiana
devoting his life to God, the Catholic Church, and
thousands of Louisianians in the greater Baton Rouge area.
The weekend before the parade he wrote in the St.
Alphonsus Catholic Church’s newsletter: “I am sure that St.
green beer - all such would not have been on his radar.
His only mission was to bring the message of God to all
of God’s people. Maybe on his feast day we can all be
messengers of God.”
The morning of the parade, in what became the perfect
coincidence, Fr. Mike’s green top hat seemed to match the
silhouette of his caricature on the sides of the Grand Marshal
Float. It wasn’t arranged and some might call it the ‘Luck of
the Irish.’
Granted, he’s had years of experience as a patron of this
parade. For decades, Fr. Mike has participated in the events
leading up to parade weekend day and watched on parade
day from the side of Hundred Oaks Avenue near the Catholic
Life Center.
His family had not participated, so they traveled thousands
of miles to celebrate Fr. Mike as Grand Marshal and St. Patrick
in Baton Rouge.
Mike’s sister Siobhan NiMaholrouni, his nephew Aedan
Moroney and friend Rodge Byrne arrived days before the
parade from Ireland.