There are parades and then there is Montreal’s St. Patrick’s parade, which has marched through the streets of the city and into Canadian history for 200 years. The street carnival has outlived the Patriote Rebellion of 1837, Fenian infiltration, Orange animosity, strained relationships among Roman Catholic priests who wanted it cancelled, two world wars, two Quebec independence referendums, and two centuries of howling March winds and chilling sub zero temperatures.

With One Long Line of Marvel veteran journalist Alan Hustak has dug up untold nuggets about the parade and nested them with historical certainty and an imaginative flourish in the setting of a Montreal that he knows. Although the author is not a son of Erin, he is considered an honorary Irishman and in 2006 walked the parade route as Chief Reviewing Officer. With this book he continues to honour Montreal’s Irish community by celebrating its personalities and by telling its stories. One Long Line of Marvel enlightens, entertains, amuses and perhaps above all superbly chronicles a long and worthwhile tradition in Montreal’s history.

Author, journalist and broadcaster Alan Hustak was a television correspondent when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister in the 1970s and 80s and as a reporter for The Gazette for 25 years he also observed Justin Trudeau's rise to the same office. Over the years his byline has appeared in every major newspaper in Canada. He has written more than a dozen books, among them Titanic: The Canadian Story and biographies of former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed, WWI Chaplain Canon Frederick Scott and former Montreal mayor Sir William Hingston. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Medal for chronicling the lives of deserving Canadian people and institutions. Hustak divides his time between Montreal and Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan.

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