The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City has long been steeped in politics and controversy, but parade organizers have strictly forbidden any signs or banners reflecting political views or slogans — except for one.

“England Get Out of Ireland.”

This full-throated denunciation of the British governance of six counties that make up Northern Ireland has for decades been the only political banner allowed in the parade, which will be held on Saturday for the 257th consecutive year, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The banner has long been a crowd favorite.

“It always gets the loudest cheer,” said Tim Myles, an Irish nationalist from Long Island who carries the banner with the Nassau County Ancient Order of Hibernians.

The statement might seem a throwback to the more politically charged 1970s and 1980s, when paradegoers passionately supported hunger strikers and Irish Republican Army members during “The Troubles.”