Mike Benn To March As Grand Marshal Of The NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade

By Katie McFadden

It’s the moment we’ve Benn waiting for. We’ve seen him march plenty of times down Newport Avenue and Rockaway Beach Boulevard as president and chairman of our very own Queens County St. Patrick’s Day Parade and now Mike Benn will have the honor of marching down Fifth Avenue in the 264th New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade as grand marshal!

In August 2024, the NYC parade committee announced that Mike Benn will finally be getting his flowers, or shamrocks. He was named the grand marshal of the 2025 parade. The honor comes after years of dedication to organizing Rockaway’s own parade, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 1.

The honor came as a surprise to Benn, who says he’s only the second person from Queens to receive the honor. “Never in my wildest dreams did I envision myself as being grand marshal in the Fifth Avenue parade. I always worked and walked the parade, but being actual grand marshal, I never strived for it,” Benn said. “It’s totally amazing.”

While it may have come as a surprise to Mike Benn, Rockaway has seen firsthand his dedication to celebrating and promoting Irish culture, something deep in his blood as a lad straight from Ireland. Born in Limerick in 1948, Benn immigrated to the United States with his family in 1962. He attended Cardinal Hayes high school in the Bronx. The same borough where his wife, Christina was living, but he happened to meet her at a Limerick event at the Manhattan Center. After all, she’s from Limerick, too. After serving as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1969 through 1972, Benn married his bride. They’ve been married for 53 years.

More than 40 years ago, Benn and his wife moved to Rockaway, where they’ve raised a family of six children: Michael, Richard, William, Brendan, Patrick and Tara, and has now grown to 11 grandchildren: Michael, Oliver, Shayla, Brendan, Ryan, Heidi, Madison, Richard, Teagan, and Mackenzie Cassidy, all of whom are growing up to embrace and celebrate their Irish Catholic roots.

Shortly after moving to Rockaway, Benn started planting his roots in Rockaway’s own parade. He had already spent several years marching up Fifth Avenue with the Limerick Association, for which he was heavily involved in planning events and fundraising efforts. So, when he saw his new hometown of the Irish Riviera had its own parade, he wanted to be a part of it. “When I moved to Rockaway, I saw the parade and I said to my wife, ‘I’d really like to get involved in this.’ She said, ‘No, you’re already involved with Limerick.’ But I saw the parade going by and I knew how much I enjoyed being involved with the New York City parade and that was the driving force behind me,” Benn said. So, he got involved with Rockaway’s parade and never looked back.

Benn worked along with James Conway Sullivan, who founded Rockaway’s parade in 1976. “I got involved and we started expanding the parade and when Jimmy died, I took over,” Benn explained. He says he started serving as chairman and president of the parade in 1998, after having served as vice president for five years prior to that. Today, the Queens County St. Patrick’s Day parade is the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York, next to the city parade that Benn will proudly march in as grand marshal on Monday, March 17.

Benn was overjoyed to see the Queens County St. Patrick’s Day Parade see its 50th year on March 1. “It was fantastic. We see people from both sides of the aisle come together, kids come back from college, it’s like Rockaway’s Mardi Gras. They like to celebrate, and we like to give them something to celebrate—our culture,” Benn said. Coming from Limerick and continuing to celebrate his roots since he set foot in America, Benn understands the importance of celebrating that history and keeping it going from generation to generation. It’s something he does not only through parades, but by producing and directing AN Suil Na Gael TV, “The eyes of Irish,” a television program that promotes Irish culture and heritage on gaeltv.com. “That’s our heritage,” Benn said. “You have to realize and respect what you came from. It made you who you are. Your heritage teaches you how to walk.”

As chairman and president of the Rockaway parade, Benn has also prided himself on honoring civil servants and union workers, something he knows well as a retired construction worker, having spent time in Local 30 International Union of Operating Engineers and Local 608 Carpenters Union. “I’m glad we can give recognition to them. For years, nobody recognized the courts, sanitation, the guys in every civil service position, the laborers. We need to recognize that Ireland was built on labor. New York was built on labor. So, every year we ask these organizations to nominate someone and we take that person and honor them,” Benn says. “It’s so important to celebrate these people so young kids are inspired to follow in their mother and father’s footsteps.”

Benn is leading by example, serving as inspiration to his own family. He says on Monday, not only will some family be coming from Ireland, but all of his kids and grandkids will be joining him behind a banner as they march down Fifth Ave for the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “All the grandkids are excited to be coming to ‘Grandpa’s parade,’ Benn says. “This is what they’ll always remember. You’re building memories and that’s what the whole thing is about. They’ll remember when they marched in the New York City parade with Grandpa, and hopefully they’ll continue.”

All are welcome to cheer on grand marshal Mike Benn at the 264th New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade on Monday, March 17. The parade kicks off at 11 a.m. at East 44th Street, and marches along Fifth Avenue, to East 79th St. The parade will also be broadcast live on NBC 4 New York.