William M. Grace

The Mayor hosted his annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion this morning. There were plenty of round and ruddy faces in attendance, sipping creamy Irish coffees as waitresses passed around mini shepherd pies and Irish sausage garnished with green paisley mustard. Next to green-dyed carnations, police officers named O'Reilly smiled for cameras. City workers wore green ties. (A tie-less Kevin Sheekey wore a green ball cap.) Martina Minihan, a representative of the northern Irish town of Sligo, wore an orange, green and white sash.

"I can't drink this thing any more," said Minihan, putting down her coffee. "It's got half a bottle of booze in it."

"The best part is the Irish coffees for breakfast," disagreed Brian G. Andersson, Commissioner of the Department of Records & Information Services. He also liked how Bloomberg opened his remarks with a bit of Irish trivia: Who was the city's first Irish mayor?

The city's top record keeper claimed he had known the answer (William R. Grace 1881-1882) but Christine Quinn's father had beaten him to it.

Mr. Quinn (whose daughter will sit out today's parade to protest the Ancient Order of Hibernians ban on gay groups) also knew the source of Grace's shipping fortune.

"Guano!" yelled Mr. Quinn.

—Jason Horowitz