WORCESTER—The McInerney School of Irish Dance performs in everything from national and world championship competitions to the Ancient Order of Hibernians Festival to church halls, nursing homes and house parties, but one of the favorite days of the year for the dancers is taking part in the Worcester County St. Patrick’s parade.
“The parade is one of the best days of the year,” said Clare McInerney-Gentilucci, the school’s owner. “It gives such an opportunity for everybody in the dance school. They’re competing all year and they’re practicing this and that, but this gives us a chance to walk down Park Ave. and enjoy the whole Worcester community.
“There are always such big crowds and great cheers as the dancers are coming by. It’s just a good feeling to be a part of and to be part of the Worcester community, and share the Irish culture and it’s just an all-around great day.”
The parade of floats, bands and marchers flow down Park Ave. this Sunday, March 16, beginning at noon at the corner of Mill Street and ending about two miles and two hours later at the corner of Highland Street.
With the temperature forecast to reach 60 degrees on Sunday, more than 100,000 spectators and participants are expected to be on hand. It’s the largest audience that the dancers see each year.
The parade began in 1983, the same year that the McInerney School of Irish Dance was formed in Worcester. McInerney-Gentilucci recalls marching in the parade with her sisters, Mary and Ann, in the inaugural parade before the school became a part of it.
The school has about 95 dancers, including five boys, aged 3-22. Most of them, dressed in their wigs and purple school dresses, will take part in the parade, accompanied by Mayor Joseph Petty and Congressman James McGovern.
About 15 of the top dancers dance for the length of the parade atop a flatbed truck with Irish music blaring from a speaker.
“We always laugh and talk about having to work on their balance and their coordination,” McInerney-Gentilucci said, “because sometimes the truck takes a little bit of a jolt and they have to hold on tight.”
The top dancers on the flatbed end up dancing for two hours.
“It’s amazing how fast it really goes,” McInerney-Gentilucci said, “because you’re constantly moving.”
McInerney urges her dancers to dress in layers.
“While we’re waiting for the parade to start,” she pointed out, “it can be really chilly, but once they get going, they’re sweating by the time we get to the end of it.”
The other dancers march behind the flatbed with parents and siblings joining some of the younger ones. The youngest dancers will be pushed in strollers or pulled in wagons some of the way.
McInerney-Gentilucci marches with the younger dancers and when they reach a big crowd of spectators along the route, they stop to dance for them. Then they rush to catch up to the flatbed with the older dancers.
“You’re up there to have fun,” McInerney-Gentilucci said. “If you make a little mistake, no one is going to be mad at them. Just do your best, smile, wave and have fun.”
Casey Bartley, 18, of Holden has danced for 12 years. She qualified for the world championships for the eighth time this year and she finished in the top five in the New England Regionals five times, including in first place in 2019. She will dance on the flatbed truck.
“It’s definitely very fun,” Casey said. “I think it’s nice to be able to show off what we do to everyone in Worcester. I know a lot of people don’t really understand what Irish step dance is or get the full picture. So it’s nice to be able to show people what we do and how hard we practice.”
Casey’s father, Chris, coaches the WPI men’s basketball team which will play at Wesleyan Friday night in the NCAA Division 3 Sweet Sixteen. McInerney-Gentilucci’s son, Ryan, is a member of the WPI team, but he’s been injured this season.
Maddie Faucher, 16, of Shrewsbury, is dancing in the parade for the twelfth year.
“I definitely look forward to it every year,” she said. “We’re with our friends all day. It’s a very fast-paced day, but a good one. It’s just great to be out there and see the crowd and everything.”
Bridget Muenzberg, 12, of Sturbridge, has danced for nearly eight years. Her mother, Meghan Fleming, used to dance for the school.
“She always tells me that she wishes she could be back in my shoes because she misses dancing on the float and being in the parade,” Bridget said.
About eight of the step dancers are children of former dancers at the school.
McInerney-Gentilucci’s sister, Mary McInerney-Zona, started the school in 1983 and her dancers became one of the highlights of the parade. Unfortunately, she died in 2009 after battling breast cancer for six years.
Four months before she passed away, she served as Grand Marshal of the parade and marched the entire length of the route, waving to the spectators one last time.
“It’s just a great day to celebrate,” McInerney-Gentilucci said of the parade, “but it’s also a good way to honor her, knowing how much fun she had doing the parades all those years and the honor that it was being the Grand Marshal in 2009. It’s always a special day remembering her and how much she loved the whole community.”
McInerney-Zona’s wish was to keep the school open so McInerney-Gentilucci took over after assisting her for many years. The school moved from Worcester to Auburn in 2008. McInerney-Zona’s daughter, Keeley Zona, teaches at the school.
“It’s so great to see her with the little kids,” McInerney-Gentilucci said, “and it brings back so many memories of how Mary was with the kids, too. I know she would be just so proud of Keeley now in helping the school succeed.”
“It means so much to me,” Zona said, “because I still feel so connected to my mom through this, especially parade day, one of her favorite days, if not her favorite day of the year.”
Zona was 8 when she walked the parade route with her mother when she was Grand Marshal. Now 24, she stopped dancing nearly two years ago and enjoys teaching at the school.
“I love now that I’m doing what she was doing,” Zona said, “and loving it just as much as her.”
A sign in one of the school’s studios reads: “Dancing in our hearts forever. Mary Mac.”
McInerney-Zona could be strict, but loving at the same time.
“Mary had such a way of making everybody feel as if they were the most important person in the world,” McInerney-Gentilucci said.
McInerney-Gentilucci, a Hall of Fame basketball star at Burncoat High and Merrimack College, isn’t as strict with the dancers, but she doesn’t have to be during the parade.
Three of the dancers are preparing to compete in the world championships April 13-20 in Dublin, Ireland, and 20-25 of them are expected to compete in the national championships in July in Washington, D.C. There will be much less stress during the parade on Sunday.
“It’s a day to show everybody the talent,” McInerney-Gentilucci said, “and wave to people. People are clapping and people are smiling. It’s not like the grind of a feis with three judges there with a pen deciding if you’re good or bad or indifferent.”
After the parade, the dancers will perform at the Fiddlers’ Green Pub at 19 Temple St.
Over the years, the school has danced with such world renowned performers as the Chieftains, Lunasa, Cherish The Ladies, Eileen Ivers and Teada. The dancers have performed with Irish Christmas in America, at First Night Worcester and at special events at the State House in Boston and the Hanover Theatre.
The parade’s Grand Marshal this year is Catheryn “Kate” McEvoy, a long-time member of the parade committee. The parade will feature the Worcester County Shrine Club and Melha Shriners buzzing around in their miniature cars, many floats, the Holy Cross and WPI school bands, several high school bands, color guards and the Burncoat High School Spirit Team, which placed third in a national competition in Florida last year.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
