Kelly Canning Ruickoldt is West Haven’s ‘Irishwoman of the Year’ Kelly Canning Ruickoldt is second-generation Irish-American, will be honored at noon March 17

West Haven ‘Irishwoman of the Year’ Kelly Canning Ruickoldt, a second-generation Irish-American, will be honored at noon March 17 on the Campbell Avenue side of City Hall. West Haven ‘Irishwoman of the Year’ Kelly Canning Ruickoldt, a second-generation Irish-American, will be honored at noon March 17 on the Campbell Avenue side of City Hall. Photo: Photo - Kelly Canning Ruickoldt Photo: Photo - Kelly Canning Ruickoldt Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Kelly Canning Ruickoldt is West Haven’s ‘Irishwoman of the Year’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

WEST HAVEN >> Kelly Canning Ruickoldt will be honored on March 17 — St. Patrick’s Day — as West Haven’s Irishwoman of the Year at the city’s 26th annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.

Canning Ruickoldt, whose grandparents were from the town of Mohill in County Leitrim, Ireland, will be honored by the West Haven St. Patrick’s Day Committee. The “Irish Person of the Year” honor is given annually to an Irish-descended resident or couple.

“It’s exciting, I can tell you that,” Canning Ruickoldt, grand marshal of the 2014 Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade, said Tuesday. She said the Irishwoman of the Year honor ranks with being selected as parade grand marshal among the greatest honors she has received.

“It’s just like one wonderful feeling, because being the grand marshal is just an amazing accomplishment because you work really hard ... and being honored by the city is just on top of all that other stuff,” she said in a phone interview.

Canning Ruickoldt said she has taken off every St. Patrick’s Day for the last 25 years — “and I’ve gone to that event every year.

“I wish my parents were here to see it,” she said.

As part of the celebration, the city will hang an emerald green street sign designating City Hall’s Campbell Avenue entrance “Kelly Canning Ruickoldt Square” for the coming year, the city said in a news release.

Last year’s honoree, Board of Education and Democratic Town Committee chairman Jim Morrissey, will be presented with his sign at the start of the ceremony.

“I am very thankful to the St. Patrick’s Day Committee for selecting me as the 2017 recipient of the West Haven Irish Person of the Year,” Canning Ruickoldt said in the release.

She will celebrate her Irish heritage with a number of close friends and relatives, along with some dignitaries and other descendants of immigrants from the Emerald Isle.

The St. Patrick’s Day Committee is led by Chairwoman Joanne Conlan. It includes members of the West Haven Irish-American Club and former honorees, as well as former and current city, fire and police officials.

“As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we pay tribute to the extraordinary good works of the Irish people to the character, culture and vibrancy of the United States,” Mayor Edward M. O’Brien said. “In the spirit of Erin’s patron saint, let us recognize the indelible mark that generations of Irish-Americans like Kelly Canning Ruickoldt have made in shaping the life of our country and the story of our community.”

O’Brien called Canning Ruickoldt “a woman of principle,” for “devoting her time, talents and energy to the Irish-American community.”

Accompanied by Celtic music played by a bagpiper, members of the Police Department and West Shore Fire Department emerald societies will escort Canning Ruickoldt to the Campbell Avenue side of City Hall at noon March 17 for the ceremony.

O’Brien will present her with an Irish flag and a mayoral proclamation. Canning Ruickoldt also will receive a jacket embroidered with her new title: “Irishwoman of the Year.”

A corned beef and cabbage lunch will follow in the basement conference room of City Hall, 355 Main St.

Canning Ruickoldt’s paternal grandparents, Francis Joseph Canning and the former Catherine Louise O’Brien, arrived in the United States in 1906, at the ages of 18 and 21, respectively, after leaving Ireland in search of a better life. They married in 1912 and made their way to New Haven’s Bishop Street eight years later.

“My grandfather came to America with only $10 in his pocket, but through hard work and determination, he made a promising future for himself and his wife and four children,” said Canning Ruickoldt, whose grandfather worked for the New Haven Gas Light Co.

Canning Ruickoldt was born in New Haven in 1957 to Francis “Buddy” Canning, a telephone company worker, and the former Joan Hines, a homemaker. After the Cannings moved to West Haven in 1960, Canning Ruickoldt and her siblings were raised in a single-family home on Prospect Avenue in West Shore.

For the past 27 years, Canning Ruickoldt has worked for the West Haven Community House as Head Start office manager.

Canning Ruickoldt, a 1976 graduate of West Haven High School, is a longtime member of the Irish-American Club. She served as its president from 2008 to 2010, vice president from 2006 to 2008 and secretary from 2004 to 2006.

She also serves on the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, sitting on the executive board and the general and ball committees and as chairwoman of the committee’s annual “Tip a Past Grand Marshal” benefit.

On St. Patrick’s Day, Bagpiper Jason Hall of the New Haven County Firefighters Emerald Society Pipes and Drums will lead the opening procession, followed by remarks from master of ceremonies David Coyle.

The Rev. Mark R. Jette, who serves St. Lawrence and St. Paul churches, will offer an Irish blessing. Michael Enright, Canning Ruickoldt’s son, will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Irish national anthem, “Soldier’s Song,” followed by a greeting from O’Brien.

Joined by her husband of eight years, Doug Ruickoldt, and her children, including daughters Rebecca Enright and 2005 Parade Queen Melinda Enright Cinolauro, Canning Ruickoldt will then pull off a shroud revealing the rectangular sign.

Canning Ruickoldt said her step “bonus sons,” Douglas J. Ruickoldt and Councilman Nicholas W. Ruickoldt, D-2, will also accompany her at the ceremony, along with her son-in-law, Anthony Cinolauro, her 9-month-old grandson, Benjamin Cinolauro, her two sisters, Karen Ramos and Holly Bonzagni, and her two brothers, Michael and Peter Canning.