The commander of the South Boston veterans group behind the St. Patrick’s Day parade is objecting to the use of multicolored umbrellas by gay pride marchers, saying they broke the rules barring political statements and vowing to take action against any violations.

“It was shocking and unauthorized … when they appeared at G (Street) and Broadway carrying 10-12 multicolored umbrellas that I would describe as rainbow even though I have been told they ‘technically’ were not rainbows,” Veterans Council Commander Brian R. Mahoney wrote in an opinion piece published in Thursday’s edition of South Boston Today, a local paper for which he serves as editor-in-chief.

“Well, how’s this — umbrellas of any sort are not allowed,” Mahoney wrote. “We can all play word games but again we’re running a celebratory event not a protest or social movement. In any event we review tapes of the parade for improvements and violations and will take action where appropriate.”

Organizers, he added, sifted through more than 200 applications and dealt with “a million details” for the city’s 114th annual parade. He said Boston Pride’s application — which labeled them as a “social organization with volunteers of Irish descent” — was “innocently believed” to be an “off-shoot of ‘Boston Strong’ ” — the city’s rallying cry after the 2013 Boston Marathon attacks.

“Any report that the Council voted on or even saw the application is either a misquote or complete fabrication,” Mahoney wrote in the piece titled “Parade in Review,” adding that the group did not march as their application stated they would.

“I was assured numerous times by those in this unit, who enforce the rules of the gay pride parade, that they would respect ours,” Mahoney wrote. “I spoke again with this unit on the Kelly Bridge, inspected their banner, flags and two rainbow banners with a pot of gold and leprechauns and found no violation.”

Repeated attempts to reach Mahoney at home last night were unsuccessful.

Chester Darling, the Andover attorney who won the landmark 9-0 Supreme Court decision in 1995 that gave the council the right to exclude marchers who display gay rights banners, said he thought it was “unfortunate that this had to come up” because “now we’ve got another controversy going for next year.”

Darling added: “The fact is that the veterans have the ability to include or exclude any group they want. The rules described the absolute autonomy of the veterans to determine exactly what would go down the street.”

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch called Mahoney’s opinion piece “unfortunate.”

“I participated in the parade and we were happy to have them,” the South Boston Democrat said of Boston Pride and the gay veterans group OUTVETS, who marched for the first time this year. “I think they were warmly received, I think that they were gracious in their own way, and I think it was a completely positive event and I don’t want anything now to take away from that.”

“I had an umbrella, too, myself. Mine was green,” Lynch joked. “I’m not running the parade but I thought as a spectator and a participant, I thought it was entirely appropriate, I thought they carried themselves well, and I would be proud to have them march again.”