New York:Hundreds of New York City firefighters boycotted yesterday's New York St Patrick's Day parade in protest at being ordered not to wear their traditional green berets.
Firefighters wearing their berets watched the parade from the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, saying it was the only way to deal with the edict from fire commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
On March 4th the commissioner said every member of the fire department should wear his or her uniform with pride and respect. "It's about respecting the uniform and the position you hold, both of which should not be taken for granted."
The firefighters have filed a discrimination complaint with the state's human rights commission on the grounds that members cannot express their ethnic traditions.
The parade, the biggest in the world, got under way at 11am yesterday, heading up Fifth Avenue from 44th street past St Patrick's Cathedral before ending up several hours later at 86th street.
Fifth Avenue ran green as thousands of Irish-Americans marched. Even the beer was dyed green as Irish bars across the city were packed with revellers celebrating.
Along the parade route the loudest cheers were saved for the "Fighting 69th", the New York National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment that has lost several men in Iraq. Among those killed was Bronx firefighter Chris Engeldrum, who died in a roadside bombing attack last November.
The protesting firefighters were joined this year by the ever-present gay and lesbian demonstrators who gathered a few blocks past the start of the parade route in midtown over the organisers' long-standing refusal to allow lesbians and gays to march under their own banner.
Calling the event a "parade of hate", Johnfrancis Mulligan (35) held a sign that read "No city money for homophobia".
Earlier yesterday Cardinal Edward Egan linked US soldiers' duty in Iraq to the service of St Patrick in the fifth century.
"These young Americans heard a call and they answered," he told an audience at St Patrick's Cathedral.
"Like St Patrick, they answered the invitations."
The New York mayor Michael Bloomberg who attended the parade said that while Bloomberg may not sound Irish, his police commissioner jokingly assured him that Bloomberg is Gaelic for two terms.