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Lots Of Blarney Served Up At Kansas City's St. Patrick's Day Parade

The 44th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade marched down Broadway Thursday, attracting the Irish and their friends who love to dress in green. Around 150,000 people were expected to join in the festivities, according to organizers. 

Because this year's theme was "Blarney on Broadway," KCUR asked folks what they thought about blarney during a presidential election year.

"Political blarney is really a lot thicker than normal blarney," said Robert Green of Bonner Springs, Kansas.

But John Adams of Kansas City disagreed, saying 2016's blarney is the same as every other year.

"The Irish whiskey tastes the same, the Guinness tastes the same, the single malt whiskey tastes the same," Adams said. "It's the same blarney."

Scott Long of Kansas City, dressed in a green suit, a green top hat and a T-shirt with "Lucky" scrawled across it, added some blarney of his own.

"Blarney is the Irish version of whatever you need to do to get good luck for the rest of the year, with a little bit of romanticism mixed in. It involves kissing, which of course, is a fantastic way to get good luck."

Peggy Lowe is Harvest Public Media's investigations editor and Cody Newill is a reporter and producer for KCUR 89.3. You can find them both on Twitter @Peggylloweand @CodyNewill

I’m a veteran investigative reporter who came up through newspapers and moved to public media. I want to give people a better understanding of the criminal justice system by focusing on its deeper issues, like institutional racism, the poverty-to-prison pipeline and police accountability. Today this beat is much different from how reporters worked it in the past. I’m telling stories about people who are building significant civil rights movements and redefining public safety. Email me at lowep@kcur.org.
Cody Newill is part of KCUR's audience development team. Follow him on Twitter @CodyNewill or email him at cody@kcur.org.
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