Marching in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has been an annual highlight for a retired Queens carpenter for decades — but this year, he’ll be leading the charge.
Married grandpa Michael Benn, 75, will be the grand marshal at Monday’s event, an honor he described as “every Irishman’s dream” and a full-circle moment for the son of Limerick.
“It’s a culmination of everything in life that you’ve ever dreamed of,” Benn told The Post ahead of this year’s festivities.
“It’s an honor of honors. It’s like hitting the lotto.”
Although he’s run the Queens County St. Patrick’s Day parade — more commonly known as the Rockaway St. Patrick’s Day — for most of its 50-year history, Benn said he never imagined he would one day lead the world’s largest march.
Benn humbly described himself as incomparable to his predecessors, including Heineken CEO Maggie Timoney and Michael Dowling, the president and CEO of Northwell Health, who served as the parade’s grand marshals in 2024 and 2017, respectively.
But Benn’s deep community roots are what led parade organizers to unanimously vote him in as the 2025 leader. He works year-round with charities for the community in addition to directing “AN Suil Na Gael TV,” a television show dubbed “the eyes of the Irish” that promotes Irish culture and heritage.
St. Patrick’s Day has played a major role in Benn’s life since he was a young boy growing up in Ireland’s city of Limerick — and even kickstarted his romance with his wife.
Both Benn’s and his spouse’s families hail from Limerick City, and he and his wife emigrated separately to the Big Apple as teenagers in the 1960s. In search of the American Dream, Benn’s family was following the mission of his uncle, who tragically died as a third-class passenger on the Titanic when he was just 15.
Both families settled in The Bronx, but it was at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at a Manhattan dance hall where Benn and his wife, Christina, finally and fatefully crossed paths.
“Everybody … would take a table and meet people from home,” Benn recalled.
“It was so funny that I met my wife at a Limerick dance [in the Big Apple]. I was with her brother, and I said, ‘Who’s that!’ ” Benn said, noting that he had bumped into his future brother-in-law in the past at local soccer matches.
“So, we’re talking away, and we started dancing — and she stuck her phone number in my pocket,” he said of his now-wife. “The next day I called her up, and we started going out, and we got married. And thank God we did. She’s been by my side all the time.”
The couple eventually nestled in the famous Irish enclave of the Rockaways in 1980.
There, Benn met Jimmy Conroy Sullivan, another Limerick man who had founded the Queens County St. Patrick’s Day Parade just four years earlier. The two became fast friends after Benn heard Sullivan belt out the iconic Irish tune “Garryowen,” most famously used as George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment marching song.
“I heard him, and I said, ‘Boy, I got to get involved with this guy!’ ” Benn said of Sullivan.
Benn quickly rose up the ranks of the organization, serving as Sullivan’s vice president until the founder suddenly passed away in 1987. Since then, Benn has served as the parade’s lead man, including by spearheading its 50th anniversary earlier this month.
So far, the only difference Benn can discern from the Rockaway party to the city-wide one is the “volume” of crowds.
But this year’s festivities see a new feature at the start of the parade, Benn revealed to The Post.
For the first time, a stage will be erected at Duffy Square in Times Square, from which Mayor Eric Adams will blow a whistle signaling the start of the march. Marking the new kick-off will be Ireland’s own folk group, Seo Linn — the lead singer of which is coincidentally Benn’s nephew-in-law.
The Big Apple will be flooded with Benns on Monday. Roughly 40 family members, including Benn’s six children, 11 grandchildren and dozens who have flown in from Ireland, will be proudly marching alongside the grand marshal. Sixteen councillors from Benn’s native Limerick are also flying in to celebrate the honor.
Benn said the part he is looking forward to the most is walking into St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the morning Mass that each year officially kicks off the parade.
“You enter St. Patrick’s Cathedral — you get goosebumps. I’ve done it before years, but this year, I’ll be part of it,” Benn said, adding that his shy wife was nervous about walking in the church procession.
“I told her, ‘You got to hold on to me!’ And then [Cardinal Timothy Dolan], said, ‘I’ll see you on that first aisle,’ so I know he’s got something up his sleeve.”
Benn’s day will start much earlier, with a 6 a.m. Irish breakfast at the Pig ‘N Whistle, where he plans to fill up on bangers, or sausages, and mash and pudding.
“You get tuned up ready to go. And the corned beef and cabbage comes later,” Benn said.
When asked if a Guinness or Jameson was on the menu, the grand marshal laughed.
“I’m sure there will be a libation or two,” he said.
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