Marching within the metropolis’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has been an annual spotlight for a retired Queens carpenter for many years — however this yr, he’ll be main the cost.
Married grandpa Michael Benn, 75, would be the grand marshal at Monday’s occasion, an honor he described as “every Irishman’s dream” and a full-circle second for the son of Limerick.
“It’s a culmination of everything in life that you’ve ever dreamed of,” Benn advised The Put up forward of this yr’s festivities.
“It’s an honor of honors. It’s like hitting the lotto.”
Though he’s run the Queens County St. Patrick’s Day parade — extra generally referred to as the Rockaway St. Patrick’s Day — for many of its 50-year historical past, Benn mentioned he by no means imagined he would someday lead the world’s largest march.
Benn humbly described himself as incomparable to his predecessors, together with Heineken CEO Maggie Timoney and Michael Dowling, the president and CEO of Northwell Well being, who served because the parade’s grand marshals in 2024 and 2017, respectively.
However Benn’s deep group roots are what led parade organizers to unanimously vote him in because the 2025 chief. He works year-round with charities for the group along with directing “AN Suil Na Gael TV,” a tv present dubbed “the eyes of the Irish” that promotes Irish tradition and heritage.
St. Patrick’s Day has performed a significant position in Benn’s life since he was a younger boy rising up in Eire’s metropolis of Limerick — and even kickstarted his romance along with his spouse.
Each Benn’s and his partner’s households hail from Limerick Metropolis, and he and his spouse emigrated individually to the Large Apple as youngsters within the Nineteen Sixties. Searching for the American Dream, Benn’s household was following the mission of his uncle, who tragically died as a third-class passenger on the Titanic when he was simply 15.
Each households settled in The Bronx, nevertheless it was at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at a Manhattan dance corridor the place Benn and his spouse, Christina, lastly and fatefully crossed paths.
“Everybody … would take a table and meet people from home,” Benn recalled.
“It was so funny that I met my wife at a Limerick dance [in the Big Apple]. I was with her brother, and I said, ‘Who’s that!’ ” Benn mentioned, noting that he had ran into his future brother-in-law prior to now at native soccer matches.
“So, we’re talking away, and we started dancing — and she stuck her phone number in my pocket,” he mentioned of his now-wife. “The next day I called her up, and we started going out, and we got married. And thank God we did. She’s been by my side all the time.”
The couple finally nestled within the well-known Irish enclave of the Rockaways in 1980.
There, Benn met Jimmy Conroy Sullivan, one other Limerick man who had based the Queens County St. Patrick’s Day Parade simply 4 years earlier. The 2 grew to become quick associates after Benn heard Sullivan belt out the enduring Irish tune “Garryowen,” most famously used as George Armstrong Custer’s seventh Cavalry Regiment marching music.
“I heard him, and I said, ‘Boy, I got to get involved with this guy!’ ” Benn mentioned of Sullivan.
Benn shortly rose up the ranks of the group, serving as Sullivan’s vice chairman till the founder instantly handed away in 1987. Since then, Benn has served because the parade’s lead man, together with by spearheading its fiftieth anniversary earlier this month.
To date, the one distinction Benn can discern from the Rockaway social gathering to the city-wide one is the “volume” of crowds.
However this yr’s festivities see a brand new function in the beginning of the parade, Benn revealed to The Put up.
For the primary time, a stage can be erected at Duffy Sq. in Occasions Sq., from which Mayor Eric Adams will blow a whistle signaling the beginning of the march. Marking the brand new kick-off can be Eire’s personal folks group, Website positioning Linn — the lead singer of which is coincidentally Benn’s nephew-in-law.
The Large Apple can be flooded with Benns on Monday. Roughly 40 members of the family, together with Benn’s six kids, 11 grandchildren and dozens who’ve flown in from Eire, can be proudly marching alongside the grand marshal. Sixteen councillors from Benn’s native Limerick are additionally flying in to have a good time the consideration.
Benn mentioned the half he’s wanting ahead to probably the most is strolling into St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the morning Mass that every yr formally kicks off the parade.
“You enter St. Patrick’s Cathedral — you get goosebumps. I’ve done it before years, but this year, I’ll be part of it,” Benn mentioned, including that his shy spouse was nervous about strolling within the church procession.
“I told her, ‘You got to hold on to me!’ And then [Cardinal Timothy Dolan], said, ‘I’ll see you on that first aisle,’ so I know he’s got something up his sleeve.”
Benn’s day will begin a lot earlier, with a 6 a.m. Irish breakfast on the Pig ‘N Whistle, the place he plans to replenish on bangers, or sausages, and mash and pudding.
“You get tuned up ready to go. And the corned beef and cabbage comes later,” Benn mentioned.
When requested if a Guinness or Jameson was on the menu, the grand marshal laughed.
“I’m sure there will be a libation or two,” he mentioned.
