DOYLE

PAWTUCKET — Breaking with tradition, a sitting politician has been selected as grand marshal of the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Mayor James E. Doyle, who has marched in many of the past 24 parades, but never as the grand marshal, will be carrying the traditional blackthorn walking stick when the parade kicks off at Jenks Junior High School on March 3.

“I’m very proud of my Irish-American heritage and was delighted with the honor,” Doyle, 68, told Ann McCarthy, publicist for the parade committee.

McCarthy, the daughter of the city’s longest-serving mayor, the late Lawrence A. McCarthy, said Doyle isn’t the first politician to be chosen as grand marshal.

Thomas E. Hodge received the honor in 1988; Robert E. Metivier, in 1999; the brothers R. Kevin and Michael F. Horan in 2002; Dennis M. Lynch, with his wife Irene, in 2003; and Kathleen A. Magill, in 2005

But Doyle, mayor since 1998, is the first politician actively holding office to be named grand marshal, McCarthy said

Hodge was temporarily off the City Council when he was selected. Metivier and Lynch had both retired as mayor. The Horan brothers were no longer in the General Assembly. Magill, the first woman to be elected city councilor, wasn’t on the council when the parade committee decided to name one of its own.

The parade committee had a rule barring active officeholders from serving as grand marshal. The rule was adopted because the committee didn’t want to be perceived as supporting one politician over another in elections, parade coordinator Mary Duffy Messier said.

But the rule was narrowing the field of candidates for grand marshal, Messier said.

“It was limiting us,” she said. “And so we changed that in our bylaws. Then of course we voted for Jimmy Doyle.”

Doyle is a former schoolteacher, salesman and City Council member.

As mayor, he has emphasized prudent fiscal management while pursuing projects that many consider visionary: A new $46.1-million treatment plan to improve the quality of the city’s drinking water; a hotel, as yet unbuilt, that will help jumpstart the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront; a plan to acquire the Pawtucket-Central Falls train station by condemnation and restore it as a commuter rail stop.

Though he hasn’t been afraid of controversy, Doyle has been a popular mayor with broad public support. Last year was the first time since he was elected that he faced opposition, battling R. Thomas Magill in the Democratic primary, and Republican Douglas Tunstall Jr. in the general election.

Doyle won both contests handily, despite assertions by both his opponents that voters were tired of him.

He beat Magill by a 2-to-1 margin, and Tunstall with more than 80 percent of the vote.

Doyle will be the guest of honor at the Grand Marshal’s Reception, scheduled to take place 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 1 at Lang’s Village on Mendon Avenue.

During the reception, he will be presented with the traditional blackthorn walking stick used during the parade

Tickets are $20 per person and $35 per couple. The proceeds pay for the Saturday parade, which receives no public money and typically costs $10,000, the money going to marching units and bands.

jcastell@projo.com