Good morning, everybody. It looks great to see all of our not old friends but long time friends that have been with us since the early days of San Francisco and also, of course, with our sister city that is 36 years old today. [applause] now we are blessed to have so many Irish Americans that have made San Francisco what it is. We have one that is very special to us, and that is our in house Irish American. That is shawn, the chief of staff to the mayor, and we have something that is going to help you because you need help, right . A shot of whiskey . No, no shot of whiskey yet. There is an old tradition of an irish stick, thush shillelag. It was something that a welldressed man had as a walking stick. Then it became sort of a weapon because we only have weapons of love and not of fighting in San Francisco. Then it was a sporting vehicle to use. Now you can buy them with a flask at the top with christi. Whiskey. We thought you would need this. As you know this is march 6th. I always thought the irish day was the 17th, right . Our Irish Americans in San Francisco want to celebrate early. We thought that this irish stick, shillelagh, would be helpful to keep people in order. It is a stick of friendship. We cant shake hands. You are going to shake a stick. Then you are going to walk in the parade aphave your walking stick, and then when you do the irish jig, you will have it. Here is the presentation. applause . Look at this. Shape up. You are ready, right . Just in case, you know, the mayor is always in a good mood. In case she wants to talk about something serious, what you should do is bring this out. 500 best irish jokes and walk in and tell her one of these jokes. I am sure every day you walk in you have one joke after the other, right . Absolutely. You have got your stick, your jokes, now the floor is yours to present all of these wonderful things we have happening and the first of all, is going to be the best, right . Got it. Good morning. Welcome to my favorite day of the year at city hall. Charlotte, it is great to have you here. You have been doing this many years. We are lucky to have you as our hostess. Am i allowed to use this in my conversations with the board of supervisors . Okay. Speaking of the supervisor from the sunset district gordon mar is here today. From the marina, catherine stefani. Thank you both for being here. This is always dangerous. I have been told that i will be in trouble if i dont introduce the commissioner. Angus mccarthy from Building Inspections commission is here. Somewhere in this crowd is from the immigrant rights commission. I dont see her, but i know she is here. Our sheriff could not be here. Under sheriff free man is here somewhere. Our fire chief is here, jeanine nicholson. Golden gate bridge long time member john mow land is here. Former grand marshall of the st. Patricks day parade. Good to have you here, john. The first person i get to bring up is our mayor. We will tell you she is having a difficult time today because she is now no longer grand marshall. Her term as grand marshall has ended. There have been moments when we had a number of long boring meetings in the office. She gets frustrated and tells us stop telling me mayor, i want to be called grand marshall. She pulls out the sash. Here she is for paps th perhe last time. Grand marshall london breed. Mayor breed my merchandising is once a grand marshall always a grand marshall, right, director . That is why i pulled it out today for this special occasion. I want to take this opportunity to also acknowledge the president of the university of San Francisco, paul fitzgerald. Thank you so much for being with us today. Also, just to say charlotte, that is an amazing outfit. Thank you so much for continuing to coordinate all of these incredible events to bring so many communities together. Many of you have known shawn for a long time. I work with him every day. I never hardly see him leave his office. I am glad you convinced him to be the mc today to welcome you all here. The fact you serve whiskey has something to do with it. Today we are celebrating what is just an amazing friendship that continues to exist between the Irish Community and San Francisco. In fact, we know that the legacy of this city has everything to do with our incredible Irish Community, many who i am grated here to San Francisco often running from discrimination in the east coast, and many settled here and started their businesses here, raised families here and created what we are so very proud of. Who has the best water anywhere . San francisco. It is because the dam and the water and power system created here many, many decades ago that we enjoy what is some of the best water anywhere in the world. We also know that many irish men served as mayors of this city. It is time for an irishwoman to step up for a change. We know that the rich history and legacy is why in 1984 then mayor Dianne Feinstein established the sister city relationship between San Francisco and cork, ireland. Thank you for continuing your leadership as one of the cochairs for that sister city relationship. So much history and so many incredible people, and, yes, i have the privilege of serving as the grand marshall. When i committed to being the grand marshall of the parade last year, i committed to showing up to every event, mr. Lions, now that you are the grand marshall, if i as mayor can show up to all of the events and do all of the vo volunteer k required to wear the sash, i want to be sure you are filling my footsteps with pride. Congratulations. We know that you immigrated here to San Francisco, met your wife on geary street, raised four Incredible Church and have a rich history and legacy in San Francisco. Thank you so much for being with us today. Congratulations. We are going to see you at the parade for sure. With that i just want to take this opportunity to recognize our treasurer jose who is here as well. And finally to commemorate this moment, yes, the parade is amazing and all of the dance performances, all of the volunteer activities. This is a time of pride, celebration, a time of coming together, and part of that includes the friendship that continues between San Francisco and ireland, and in particular our sister city committee. I want to ask the Council General of ireland to come forward. Robert has been with us many years. He is incredible. On behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, i would like you to accept the certificate to honor our relationship and friendship for generations to come. Thank you. [applause] lets celebrate in San Francisco. Thank you. I would say happy st. Patricks day. That is the 17th. Happy early st. Patricks day. Thank you, mayor breed. To continue we will begin with a performance led by the amazing principal of saint phillips, marry mckee. We have both the adults and youth choir. Come on up. On your seats some of you may have the lyrics to a song that i would assume none of you need the lyrics to. You will all know this song. Welcome celtic voices. When irish eyes are smiling when irish eyes are smiling, they can steal your heart away when irish eyes are smiling, it is like a morn in spring it is the tilt of irish laughter you can hear the angels sing when irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay when irish eyes are smiling, they will steal your heart away applause thank you, celtic voices. I cant help myself. The beautiful young woman with the red hair is my goddaughter. Go job. Since they just arrived, San Francisco has a great history of a number of Department Heads of Irish American descent. I would like to recognize mickey callahan, department of human resources, and bill scott from the San Francisco police department, and his assistant chief mike redman over there. Thank you for being here, gentlemen. It is now my privilege to recognize the Council General of ireland Robert O Driscoll who has a tremendous connection to San Francisco because his son was born in San Francisco. No matthe matter where his cares him, San Francisco will always be his sons home. Thank you very much. I think he is here today. This is his first st. Patricks day event. I am excited. If you see a green ball, that is mine. Distinguished guests, mayor breed, and supervisors and Department Heads and everybody, very happy t to be here today. Looking back for this event wondering what to say. It is 169 years since the first st. Patricks day parade. 170 years since the first mayor got appointed. How in the fliers year of a mayor was there not a st. Patricks day parade . The first mayor was appointed in may 1850. In january it would have been a parade that year, too. I have been reflected on my thoughts about the parade and first parade, and what were they doing . They were celebrating irish heritage. These are people who left under huge duress, typically in famine times and reached the east coast and no overly welcome home. California offered the promise of prosperity and good life for them and their family. They were celebrating they would never go back to ireland but never forget ireland. There is a grave yard from 1854. All of those had the names of people there and names from ireland but what county in ireland is listed. I thought that was in the last days when they were thinking how to be remembered. It wasnt enough to be from ireland. They had to be from cork and dublin. That connection to home was still as strong at the end of life as it was when they left. I am proud of that. I think the other thing they were doing that day, they were looking forward to what they would achieve because they had achieved a lot to get that far but they had a lot of work to do. The theme of this parade this year serving our communities, i think probably reflects the greatest achiev achievement of t community. That is what we do. That is the irish story in the city. The police in the city administration, politics, in the Fire Department, in the schools. Marry mckeever is here, principal of saint phillips, or all of the people who take leading roles. Our community serve. We should celebrate that for the next week over the course of the parade. Particularly they are so reflective of that. They are all some part of the story of service. As grand marshall you reflect the sense of community, that ethos. Look at the story. It is not just service to the community but the Irish American community through youth gaa. When we look back at your legacy, and i said this at the grand marshalls dinner in your honor. What a legacy for our culture to be passed to the next generation. It is very special. You have had a huge role in that. Everyone in the community here wants to celebrate on your special day. Please give him a huge round of applause. I want to thank shawn. I am scared of shawn with asia e shillelagh. Happy st. Patricks day. Thank you, Council General. I dont know if you saw what happened over there while he was speaking. The president of the Residential Builders was yelling that i hadnt introduced him. Shawn over there. Welcome. Glad you are here, shawn. I cant help. We also vointroduce supervisor matt haney. He has a great connection he studied at the university of galway, and he is the supervision or mar is the landlord of the center. He is the landlord of the krb. Supervisor haney on the mission street. We cant have a flag raising without dancing. It is a privilege to introduce the dancers from murphy school. Welcome. [applause]. I just want to introduce one of the dancers. This is mary who just this week received her irish citizenship. Congratulations. Welldone, murphy dancers. Thank you. All events celebrating st. Patricks day we could not do without the United Irish Society. They are doing all of the work. The president is not here today, but i would like to bring up john lynch, the Vice President to address everyone. Come on up, john. I hope i am half as exciting as the last performance. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the 169th st. Patricks day season serving our communities. I am the Vice President of the United Irish Society of San Francisco and member of carpenters 22. Thank you to the mayor for hosting us today for hosting us. Welcome to the general of ireland and vice council. Thank you for coming today. I would like to thank the San Francisco irish pipers, murphies school of dance and the Dance Academy and the beautiful sounds of the voices. Thank you for your continued effort working with the mayor in coordinating this event. Thank you to the supervisors for hosting the post reception event, i think. A tremendous amount of work goes into the st. Patricks day season. Thank you to the United Irish Society board and volunteers and sponsors that make this all happen. Thank you. Also, thank you to the city agencies supporting the many events. The San Francisco parks and recreation, San FranciscoFire Department and paramedics, San Francisco police department, San Francisco sheriffs department, the San Francisco public works, and the San Francisco m. T. A. A round of applause for those agencies. Thank you. I would like to thank and congratulate our 2020 st. Patricks day grand marshall, mr. Con lions. Thank you, con. Also, the families of our honorrary grand marshalls. applause it is a tremendous honor to be selected as the grand marshall, as well as a lot of work. Based on his track record he is up to the task at hand. Thank you, con. The st. Patricks day season consists of visits to friends throughout San Francisco as well as civic events commemorating the contributions of father peter york and kate kennedy. In conclusion, we are not new york, boston, chicago, or atlanta. We are San Francisco, and we put on one heck of a st. Patricks day celebration. Embrace this and go out aptry ty to have some fun. Thank you. At this time i would like to present the certificate of honor to con lions, our grand marshall 2020. [applause] our honorary grand Marshall William bill. Certificate of honor to john cassserly. She said it was a great honor. It absolutely is. Thank you. Certificate of honor to joseph teenrjosephine. Certificate of honor to the family of agnes monaghan. Thank you. It is good to see the valley represented up here. Thank you, john. I see spying over the side of my left corner the former District Attorney susie loftus standing over there. The mayor said she wanted to see a woman irish mayor of San Francisco. We dont have that yet. We do have a woman chair of the Irish Sister City Committee with cork, noreen, thank you for being here. You know charlotte has not been as successful without being diplomatic. You cannot have just the murphy dancers performing without having the wee land dancers. I would like to invite them up to do a little dance for us. [applause] applause thank you very much. One last announcement if you get a chance to drive by city hall tonight, the mayor instructed the building be lit up in green. That is tonight and i believe the mayor is saying green, white and orange. Okay, mayor, whatever you say. Also on st. Patricks day as well. Thank you, mayor breed. I would like to ask the dancers to come up to receive their certificates of honor for coming today to perform for us. Make sure you coun count to fivr 10 minutes. Go over to the office to