New York City St. Patrick's Day parade a travesty of genuine, modern Irish attitudes

Richard Conway, writing in the Manchester Guardian, takes a dim view of New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade.
     The Catholic group, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, still gets away with banning gay Irish descendents from marching under their own banner down public New York City streets by saying that the parade is a religious procession and technically a private event — a gargantuan farce of a excuse if AKARBENT ever heard one. Remind us again about how religion is under seige in the US and how victimized Christers are!
     Conway notes that in the real Ireland, 73% approve of gay marriage in the country's constitution, civil unions are legal, the former president has refused a NYC grand marshal title on the grounds that gay groups in the Big Apple are banned from the parade, and the current foreign minister says, about New York's parade: "Exclusion is not an Irish thing."
     He concluded: "The New York City parade is celebrating an Ireland that no longer exists."