My husband is a retired NYC Sanitation worker. He belonged to the Emerald Society his whole time there even though he’s more Greek than Irish.
Every year he marched in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Rockaway Beach, Queens. It was scheduled around the NYC one so anyone who wanted to could attend both.
The guys would rent out the upstairs of a great restaurant/bar along the route. Everyone’s family would come, watch the parade and then chow down on corned beef, cabbage, really good Irish Soda Bread and beer of course.
It’s a fun parade, family friendly and not such a madhouse as Manhattan.
The NYC parade got a real black eye when someone was killed in a brawl afterwards years ago; at that point I think a lot of people started considering alternatives.