COLDWATER — Monday morning, Ken Delaney, decked out in green and a kilt, walked from Four Corners Park to the nearby Jeannie’s Diner.
“Because I’m Irish,” he said.
The WTVB morning personality calls the event “Michigan’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”
Because his show is only on weekdays, the parade took place Monday along West Chicago for less than 20 yards.
Delaney said the idea started as a pub crawl 25 years before. “That got to be too much,” he said.
About a decade later, the parade time moved from an afternoon pub crawl to just after he finished his morning show when he headed to a downtown restaurant.
Those who join the parade usually join him for a corned beef and cabbage lunch.
In 2020, with COVID-19, he held the parade ending at JTs, with everyone wearing special St. Patrick’s Day masks.
With the shutdown, Delaney held the 2021 parade in his backyard, drinking Guinness with friends.
This year in the snow was the biggest crowd ever, with 25 people surpassing 17 in 2023.
Delaney is proud of his parade music, recorded in an Irish pub 15 years ago. “The Hudson Valley Drum and Pipe Corp, guys from New York, police officers and firefighters that were actually in a pub in Ireland,” he said.
There Delaney recorded the two minutes and 19 seconds song on his iPhone.
Delaney got his St. Patrick’s Day idea from WJR Detroit radio legend JP McCarthy. His party was held in the Fisher building in Detroit.
Delaney said McCarthy “used to just open the doors and everybody who was anybody would come by. The mayor, Wayne County Commissioners, and the bishops, everybody would come live for his morning show on St. Patrick’s Day.”
The parade is Delaney’s small market version.
Delaney traces his Irish heritage back to “My great-grandmother. My dad’s side was born in Ireland.”
For Delaney, “My whole family’s Irish, seven kids, an all-Irish Catholic family.”
“I love it everything about Ireland. I’ve been there three times,” he added.
His wife, Chris, bought him authentic Irish kilts for Irish events and parties.
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Over Memorial Day weekend, Delaney will celebrate his 40th year at the Coldwater radio station, where he is the market manager for Midwest Broadcasting.
Over those 40 years, he always did something different for St. Patrick’s Day before starting the parade. “It’s fun. I think everybody can be goofy. But since I’ve been to Ireland a couple of times, I guess it’s gotten even more so. Why not have a little fun?”
— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com
