Irish heritage runs deep in Mobile, Alabama, with the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick
Mobile will publicly celebrate St. Patrick's Day again this year, led by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. (Brad McPherson)
Allen Duffy makes no bones about his Irish heritage. It runs deep green.
Duffy’s grandfather arrived in Mobile from the Emerald Isle in the late 1800s. And his father, John Allen Duffy, helped organize the Mobile chapter of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, back in 1954.
Duffy was in the Army when the chapter got its start, or he would have been part of the founding group. But when he returned to Mobile in 1957, he joined right in, and has been involved ever since.
Now 88 and retired from a 40-year career at International Paper, Duffy is celebrating 65 years of being a Friendly Son. He’s as excited as he’s ever been about this year’s upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which the chapter organizes annually.
Well, almost annually. The parade was suspended in 2021 and in 2020 – a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, the Friendly Sons are dusting off their green blazers and green top hats and preparing, once again, to march proudly through downtown Mobile.
“I was born here in Mobile,” said Duffy, who arrived on this green Earth in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression. “The only time I’ve been away was when I was in the Army and when I was at the University of Alabama.
“It’s all about celebrating our Irish heritage,” Duffy said of the parade, which draws thousands to watch marching bands, floats and the Friendly Sons strut their stuff.
In 2009, Duffy doffed the traditional green sash and led the annual parade as grand marshal. That year, instead of marching, which is what most members do, he rode in style in a friend’s green Mercedes-Benz convertible.
These days, with the walk a bit of a challenge, Duffy is chaufeurred in a decorated golf cart by one of his two sons, who also is a Friendly Son.
Before the parade, the Friendly Sons take part in the traditional St. Patrick’s Day Mass, held at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The mass always precedes the parade.
Duffy noted that Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen, who served in Mobile from 1927 to 1969, was among the men who helped found the city’s Friendly Sons chapter. As one of the veteran members, Duffy is also a de facto historian for the group.
While St. Patrick festivities at Mobile’s Irish-style pubs – and lots of other local watering holes – generally begin the weekend ahead of March 17 (unless that day falls on the weekend), the St. Patrick’s Day Mass and parade always happen on the actual holiday. This year, it’s a Thursday.
And in case you’re wondering, there’s no partaking of fine Irish alcoholic beverages by the Friendly Sons while they are on parade, although the stoicism of Lent is officially suspended for others enjoying the holiday. The Friendly Sons reserve their toasting for an annual St. Patrick’s dinner that evening.
And only sons they be – at least in the Mobile chapter. There are no women among its 300 members, although some chapters at least acknowledge the fairer gender, including the nation’s first, formed in 1771 in Pennsylvania; it now goes by the Society of the Friendly Sons and Daughters of St. Patrick.
Why no women in the Mobile chapter, or a women’s auxiliary? “I really can’t answer that. I guess it’s more of a tradition than anything else. Hence the name,” Duffy said.
Indeed, some very prominent men of their day were behind the founding of the Friendly Sons, in old Philadelphia. Its first president was Stephen Moylan, an aide to George Washington and Revolutionary War cavalry commander who some say was the very first person to write the words “United States of America.” Another was Thomas FitzSimons, a member of the Continental Congress and signatory of the U.S. Constitution. Both men were born in Ireland; Washington himself became an honorary member in 1782.
A charitable as well as a fraternal organization in its early days, Friendly Sons reached out to help the Irish in need, back in the home country, as well as immigrants and exiles. In the 1840s, for example, the group raised money and supplies to help ease the suffering of those caught in the great Irish Potato Famine.
Duffy said the Mobile organization meets quarterly but that its primary focus is putting on the St. Patrick’s parade for the community – a tradition much beloved in the city.
This year’s parade is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. March 17 outside the basilica – just as it has, minus the brief COVID break, for decades. To learn more about St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Mobile, click here.
