After just over a year living in St. Louis, FleishmanHillard CEO John Saunders will be the grand marshal for the 48th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, this Saturday beginning at noon in downtown St. Louis. Before being appointed CEO of the company in November 2015, the Dublin native was a staff journalist for Ireland’s public service broadcast channel and later founded FleishmanHillard Saunders, which grew to become the country’s largest public relations firm. SLM recently caught up with Saunders to discuss this weekend’s festivities, his Irish roots, and his love for St. Louis.
How were you chosen as grand marshal? The man who is very much the brains behind the downtown parade is Joe McGlynn, who’s also the honorary Irish counsul for this part of the world. I met Joe many years ago, but only got to know him last year—I actually marched in the parade. Then, in January, he came to the office and said, “We’d like to bestow this honor on you.” I’m absolutely thrilled. While I’ve only been living in St. Louis for 14 months or so, I’ve been coming here since I was half the age I am now. I first came here in my late twenties and fell in love with St. Louis, so this is a very big honor for me. I love America, but I adore St. Louis.
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What’s on your schedule as grand marshal? It starts with a dinner on Thursday, where we’ll be hosting Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Ireland’s minister for jobs, enterprise, and innovation. It will be the first time in nearly two decades that a senior member of the Irish government will have traveled to St. Louis for the weekend. Minister O’Connor is also the Irish representative of the parade in Chicago and in New York, so having St. Louis back on the map, as far as the Irish government is concerned, is a big deal. On Friday, we have the official lunch, which is a more corporate event, and the parade gala that night. I speak at both of those events. On Saturday morning, I present medals at the fun run, which is a very big event, with more than 8,000 runners. Then, I lead the parade, and there’s a dinner again that night. Then, on Sunday, it ends with a lunch—if I’m still standing.
What are you most excited to do at the parade? Broadly, it’s a great opportunity to amplify the close relationship between Ireland and the U.S., and to talk about what being Irish means: I think it stands for a spirit of generosity, warmth, and inclusiveness. Ireland is a very small country; it’s a power for good and including people. Around the world, St. Patrick’s Day is a happy day, a fun day. There’s a sense of people belonging, even if they have the most tenuous or no links to Ireland. On that day, they can feel the spirit of being Irish. I’ll do my best to articulate and amplify that.
What are the biggest differences between celebrating St. Patrick’s Day here and in Ireland? First of all, there are a lot of similarities. The parade here is outstanding, and we have hundreds of parades back in Ireland, with the primary one being in Dublin… Nowadays, being Irish is a complex equation. The Ireland that I grew up in was mainly Christian and white, and that has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. People have arrived on the back of Ireland’s prosperity, coming from Africa, Eastern Europe, places like Poland. Ireland has witnessed the type of migration that America has long been used to. The [parades in Ireland] are now very much about our new society, the diversity. The country that I grew up in—who would have thought it would be the first country in Europe to ban smoking in pubs or the first in Europe to have a popular vote in favor of gay marriage? All of those things reflect how diverse we’ve become. Here in America, it’s great fun, but it more represents a stereotype of an Irish person, whereas we’d like to think, in many ways, we’ve become more diverse. We’re not knocking it, because we’re very grateful for the way it’s celebrated here in America. St. Patrick’s day has grown globally into the single biggest national festival or celebration of one single culture anywhere in the world; I can’t think of one that any country has that is celebrated from St. Louis to Beijing to Moscow to Sydney to Dubai and everywhere in between.
Where do you like to go in St. Louis when you’re feeling nostalgic for Ireland? I’m not a big pub person, per se. But places that I love in St. Louis? I love the Central West End and Clayton, where I live. I love the symphony. I really enjoy watching the Blues, and I go to see the Cardinals—I struggle a little to understand baseball; I find it easier to understand ice hockey. Probably my favorite place to go would be the Missouri Botanical Garden. But, of course, I should mention Forest Park as well, which I think is a world-class park—definitely better than Central Park and a very close second to Phoenix Park in Dublin. I’m joking. It’s the largest enclosed park in Europe. There are only three residences: One is president of Ireland, and another is the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland. [Kevin O’Malley, who happens to be from St. Louis, was the ambassador from October 2014 until this January.] It’s a measure of the honor that Ireland has in terms of its relationship with the U.S.—everyone in Ireland loves America.
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place this Saturday, March 11, beginning at noon. It will start at 20th and Market before proceeding east to Broadway and Clark.
