Tag Archives: new orleans

September 14, 2025 · 5:30 pm

A visit to New Orleans

I attended a conference last week in New Orleans. As I’ve written about in the past, the city holds special meaning for me because my father lived there briefly as a young man. It was a pit stop between his initial years as a new immigrant in New York City, and on his way to Los Angeles, where he would spend the bulk of his life.

My father worked at The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, which still exists. Any time I’m in New Orleans, I make sure to stop by The Roosevelt and have a drink to toast Dad at the Sazerac Bar. I was chatting with the bartender and he said he’d heard so many similar stories over the years, especially relatives of those who performed at the hotel’s legendary music venue, the Blue Room.

Taking in the sights and sounds of NOLA, I wonder about the culture shock Dad must have experienced upon arriving to this eccentric and vibrant city as an immigrant from Northern Ireland, after living in one of America’s other iconic cities, New York City. He didn’t stay in New Orleans long, but he did help with the planning of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade while he was there. What a thrilling experience that must have been!

Stopped by a St. Patrick’s Day parade

This past weekend, I set out to walk to the grocery store, a normal weekend routine. As I got closer to my destination, I saw roads were blocked off, and then heard the distinct sound of a parade.

Of course, it was a St. Patrick’s Day parade! I had even rearranged an appointment to avoid running into the parade. And here I was, stopped dead in my tracks, having completely forgotten what time the parade started.

At first, I was a bit annoyed, because I had to be at work in a few hours. But then I couldn’t help but think of Dad, and how much he would have enjoyed the parade, even though he didn’t like the commercialization of the holiday. He would have loved seeing the police and firemen and the traditional Irish dancing groups.

And of course, the music.

So I allowed myself to just take in the scene, all of the sights and sounds.

As I’ve written before, Dad helped with the 1959 St. Patrick’s Day parade in New Orleans. I still need to do some digging research-wise to find photos from that year’s parade, but here is the scene from the 2008 affair in the Big Easy.

Embed from Getty Images

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Tagged as new orleans, parades, St. Patrick's Day

May 4, 2013 · 10:22 am

Taking a second look

When I was going through Dad’s old photos and documents again, I came across a recommendation letter that I wrote about in a previous post This was from Dad’s New Orleans years. I know very little about that time period of Dad’s life. At least the date on the letter, March 12, 1959 gives me some point of reference. Dad left Belfast quite young (I believe Aunt Maureen said Dad was 17) and worked a couple of years in England. Then he came to America in the early 1950s and lived in New York City (primarily Brooklyn I believe). By 1959 he was obviously living in New Orleans. By 1965, he was living at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, according to his naturalization record.

I’ve been trying to piece together more on that New Orleans period. I happened to Google the man’s name on the recommendation letter, James A. Comiskey and discovered that he became a federal district court judge and was outspoken about civil rights. He died in 2005.

You never know what you might stumble upon when looking through old documents that seem to be mundane in nature. I highly recommend taking a second look at any photos or documents you have of loved ones because they may contain interesting bits of history just waiting to be discovered.