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Spokane’s St. Patrick marches a one-man parade in honor of a hero

Tom Keefe, St. Patrick of Spokane, proceeds with his one-person parade Wednesday across Monroe Street at Broadway Avenue. (DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
By Maggie Quinlan maggieq@spokesman.com(509) 459-5135

In the summer of 2018, Tom Keefe rode through downtown Dublin, Ireland atop a tourist bus dressed in his full St. Patrick regalia to applause.

This St. Patrick’s Day, Keefe, a Spokane lawyer, started a one-man parade from O’Doherty’s Irish Grille to Shawn O’Donnell’s pub, crowned with a green Guinness brand papal-style headdress.

As Keefe strolled through downtown Spokane and across the Monroe Street bridge to O’Donnell’s Wednesday, he stopped to chat with a few passersby. Normally, he would be one in a parade of many.

The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick announced the decision to cancel the 2021 St. Patrick’s Day parade in February because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the city is holding a “Holiday Parade,” scheduled for Nov. 20, to kick off winter festivities in 2021.

Keefe said he was hesitant to take on the mantle of St. Patrick when Tim O’Doherty, owner of the pub, first suggested that he dress the part for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2013.

Keefe’s grandmother, an Irish immigrant to Spokane, was “always sad” on St. Patty’s Day, as it made her nostalgic for her homeland, Keefe said.

Keefe agreed, “only if I could be a serious version. I wanted to educate people and rescue his reputation from Hallmark cards.”

St. Patrick was a 5th-century missionary to Ireland and served as bishop there. St. Patrick was an advocate for human rights, having escaped slavery himself, Keefe said.

“I think some of my appreciation for what Ireland suffered at the hands of the British helped me to understand Native Americans,” Keefe said.

Tom Keefe, St. Patrick of Spokane, proceeds with his one-person parade across Monroe Street Bridge, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
Tom Keefe, St. Patrick of Spokane, proceeds with his one-person parade across Monroe Street Bridge, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)Buy a print of this photo

Between 1846 and 1851, about a million people in Ireland died of starvation and epidemic disease during the Great Famine in Ireland, as British rulers of Ireland at the time did little to mitigate the crisis, according to a BBC report.

As a lawyer, Keefe has represented Native Americans in their right to fish. He said local American Indians’ connection to salmon reminded him of traditional Irish stories, which include a myth about a boy who gained great wisdom from a salmon endowed with magical knowledge. He sees other parallels, as Ireland was colonized like the Americas.

“One thing about being Irish is you grow up with an affection for the underdog,” Keefe said.