By Georgina Brennan

The 244th New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade marches up Fifth Avenue, from 44th to 86th streets starting at 11am on St. Patrick’s Day (Thursday, March 17th). Up to 2 million people are expected to watch.

Kerry native Denis P. Kelleher, 65, is this year’s grand marshal. Kelleher, who arrived in the U.S. as a penniless emigrant in 1958, has become a powerhouse on Wall Street with his company Wall Street Access.

The parade will be reviewed from the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral by Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York. It will also be reviewed from the Official Reviewing Stand at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will also march as millions watch the parade route from the sidelines and on NBC. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the few remaining where no cars, floats, buses, trucks or other vehicles are allowed.

The parade, sponsored by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, will include more than 150,000 marchers are members of various Irish societies from New York and around the country; many Irish-based societies make the Atlantic crossing to trek the two miles uptown.

Large contingents include the Emerald Societies of the New York City Police and Fire Departments. This year St. John’s University will send a special marching team to the parade because Kelleher is chairman of the St. John’s University Board of Trustees.

This year the Irish Queers organization plan to protest their exclusion from the parade. Gays are not allowed to march under their own banner in the parade.

“For 14 years, parade organizers have ridiculously told us there’s no such thing as a gay Irish person. Now they say that the parade — which is supposed to be the largest Irish community celebration event in America isn’t Irish at all, it’s just a triumph of Catholic values over homosexuality,” said the group.

“While Ireland has come around (more or less) to embracing gay people, the AOH claims that Irishness means bigotry, hate and exclusion. We won’t stand for it,” say the excluded group.

They will gather at 10:30 a.m. at the east side of Fifth Avenue and 58th Street to have a “Queer and Irish” spectacle.