Lexington, KY - The Alltech Lexington Saint Patrick's Parade and Festival is having a 30th anniversary festival this year downtown on March 14, and though Bill Enright has been a key player since its inception in 1980, he prefers to stay out of the limelight.
"I've seen it in print that I run this (festival), and that's a bunch of baloney," said Enright, 71. "Maybe I've been here with the longest continuity, but there are a whole lot of folks involved. I'm a member of the committee and coordinator for the parade, but I want to tone down 'me,' and tone up the festival. It takes a number of people to do it."
The festival's purpose is simple, Enright said. "It's a celebration of Irish culture in central Kentucky. I want to share my heritage and have others enjoy it and learn about it. Lexington is a wonderful place to live, and it's great to bring people downtown. This is a civic, cultural, family-oriented event, and it's a bad habit (for me) - it won't go away," he added with a laugh.
A Chicago native, Enright's parents were both born in Ireland, which allows him to have dual citizenship in Ireland as well as the United States.
Enright explained that Ireland had played a huge part in his family's culture and history, and when he transferred from Chicago to Lexington for his job with IBM some three decades ago, there were virtually no Irish clubs or activities.
"Some friends and I decided it would be nice to get together an Irish club," said Enright, who helped form the Bluegrass Irish Society soon after moving to the area. The group agreed that a simple parade could be its first organized activity even though St. Patrick's Day was only six weeks away from the time the society was formed.
"One of the guys (in the society) said, 'We can get a flat bed truck, put in a sound system and a half-barrel of beer in it, drive around the block, recite some Irish poetry, and call it a parade,'" Enright remembered with a laugh.
The parade gained instant credibility, however, when the society decided to contact then-Gov. John Y. Brown and first lady Phyllis George Brown, who offered to co-sponsor the event and arranged for their longtime friend Ed McMahon from the "Johnny Carson Show" to be its first Grand Marshal.
"The rest, as they say, is history," Enright said.
What was originally going to be a few makeshift 'floats' going down Main Street quickly turned into an all-day festival, complete with activities, entertainment, food and drinks for the thousands that showed up. It was a huge success.
This year, it is Enright's goal to recreate the day-long festival atmosphere and make it as grand as it was the first year it started.
"The festival has evolved and changed with the times, and with the interest level of the members in the (Bluegrass Irish) Club," Enright said. "We want to have a very successful festival this year and also resurrect the tradition of an annual, cultural, all-day festival."
Though Lexington has had an Irish parade for the last 30 years, the all-day festivals accompanying the event have been rather sporadic. The most recent one took place two years ago when the Irish Army Pipe Band traveled from Dublin to Lexington to lead the parade.
"They spent the week here in Lexington and performed all over town," Enright said. "They were absolutely delightful. We were flattered they accepted our invitation, because they typically are invited to places with monstrous Irish populations and parades, and they chose to come to Lexington, so we were thrilled."
Enright said the festival's theme this year will be "a celebration of Irish culture," with exhibits and displays of Irish traditions, sports and entertainment.
He noted that in addition to Alltech, Windstream and WLEX are also key sponsors of the festival, which is run in conjunction with the Lexington Parks and Recreation.
Leading up to the parade, the Bluegrass Irish Society has several fundraising events to help shoulder the cost of the festivities, such as the dinner party hosted by Dr. Frank and Katarina McDonald in February.
In addition to the McDonalds, there are numerous other vital figures who have been involved with the parade's funding and organization over the years, including Liza Hendley Betz, who owns the Failte Irish Import Shop on South Limestone Street. Hendley Betz emigrated from Dublin to the United States in 1996 and started her shop in 2001.
She has found that operating her store, along with coordinating Irish vendors for the parade, has kept her close to her roots.
Local horseman Ed Frederick is also a major part of the festival planning committee. Both Hendley Betz and Frederick bring a lot of festival experience to the table, as they additionally help run the annual Highland Renaissance Festival and Celtic Fest in Henry County.
"(Running the festival) is kind of a fun chaos," Enright said. "We've got 30 people down there just organizing the parade, and we also have a publicity committee. Thousands (of volunteers) have been involved over the years."
Enright takes pride in the fact that in the past three decades, there have been no major accidents associated with the parade, though he does clearly remember a sticky situation a few years ago when the portable toilet company that had supplied facilities for the festival forgot to unlock the toilet doors. "There were thousands of people out there drinking coffee in the cold and banging on the doors of the bathrooms," Enright remembered. "I thought they were going to string me up."
In light of the upcoming holiday, Enright was asked to talk about favorite foods from the old country.
"Well first of all, it's not corn beef and cabbage," he said. "I've never eaten it before in my life and I hope to go to my grave without eating it. My parents had never heard of that before they came to the United States - it's strictly an American concept. It's like the four-leaf clover; it has nothing in the world to do with Ireland - it's an American good luck charm, and people confuse it with the shamrock, which is a symbol of Ireland and was used by Patrick to explain the blessed Trinity to the heathens."
After being steered back to the subject of Irish cuisine, Enright said he liked bangers and rashers, the best from Hendley Betz's Failte Irish Import Shop. He explained that rashers are strips of fresh, thinly sliced bacon, while bangers are sausages made from pure meat with no preservatives.
As far as drinks go, Enright loves Guinness, but is also quite fond of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, which is quickly becoming one of the favorite beverages of many other Irish Americans.
Above all, Enright delights in the fact there has never been a shortage of Irish enthusiasm in Lexington, which has a substantial Irish population, a good majority being involved in the horse industry.
"(If you're Irish), you never refer to Ireland as Ireland," Enright said. "You call it home."
Festivities for this year's St. Patrick's celebration will begin at 10 a.m. with the Shamrock Shuffle, a 3K race to benefit the Pat Smith Habitat for Humanity Endowment Fund. The party will continue at the Robert F. Stevens Courthouse Plaza until the parade at 1:00 p.m., which will run from Midland to Mill Streets.
After that, there will be family-oriented activities at the Plaza until 7 p.m., as well as continual Irish entertainment with dancers, pipers and musicians. Products from Ireland and Irish food will also be available via vendors, who will set up shop in the right turn lane of Limestone from Main Street to Barr Street.
For more information on the parade or the Bluegrass Irish Society, visit www.bluegrassirishsociety.org.