Adams Walks in N.Y. St. Patrick’s Parade

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams’ presence among the shamrocks and bagpipes at Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade put a serious spin on the annual celebration of all things Irish.

“This parade appropriately is dedicated to peace, and that’s what we have to be attempting to achieve,” Adams said after attending Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “We have to get the peace process restored with all speed.”

It was Adams’ first-ever visit to the nation’s oldest and largest St. Patrick’s celebration, and the Irishman was greeted like a native son as he marched up Fifth Avenue past crowds that stood 10-deep on the Manhattan sidewalks.

Irish flags flapped in the cold breeze as tens of thousands of spectators braved 42-degree temperatures to cheer Adams.

Adams, wearing a gray suit with a green tie and a green ribbon on his lapel, flashed thumbs-up to the appreciative crowd as he walked with the United Irish Counties Assn.

The head of the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army was accompanied by U.S. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), a vocal advocate of a united Ireland.

“Get the job done, Gerry!” shouted Jim Connolly, 50, as his 12-year-old daughter, Courtney, cheered. Adams applauded the crowd in return as they shouted his name and waved enthusiastically.

Adams was greeted outside the cathedral by Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who had earlier quoted Pope John Paul II in urging a peaceful solution to the centuries-old struggle for peace in Ireland.

After surveying the worshipers inside the cathedral, O’Connor remarked: “What a wonderful and extraordinary sight--4,000 Irishmen in relative peace.”