By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
Mayor Dorinda Borer, a former three-term state representative, helped her friend and mentor Stephen D. “Steve” Dargan, a former 13-term state representative, reveal a Kelly green street sign designating City Hall Square as “Stephen D. Dargan Square” for the next year at West Haven’s 32nd annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration on March 17.
For just the second time since the event began in 1992, and for the first time since Paul and Therese Gill were honored as West Haven’s Irish Couple of the Year in 2007, the ceremony was held indoors because of rain.
In the cozy quarters of City Hall’s Harriet C. North Community Room, Dargan, a second-generation Irish American, received gifts of appreciation, including an embroidered navy blue “Irishman of the Year” jacket, and remarks of praise from Borer commending the city’s top Irishman for “dedicating his time and talents to our spirited Irish American community.”
In addition to the mayor reading a proclamation citing Dargan’s devotion to public service and “his vibrant heritage and culture,” the festivities featured the unveiling of the street sign naming City Hall’s Campbell Avenue entrance for the honoree until next year’s celebration, when the lifelong Westie will pass his title to a fellow person of Irish ancestry.
Although the rectangular sign was revealed inside City Hall, it was later hung above the Campbell Avenue entrance.
At the start of the 55-minute program, last year’s recipient, former West Haven school nurse Sandy McCauley, received her retired sign to take home.
The West Haven St. Patrick’s Day Committee each year recognizes an Irish resident or couple who exemplifies service in the city’s close-knit Irish community.
Despite the rain — and revealing his May 2024 Stage 4 cancer diagnosis — Dargan showed off his signature sense of humor, cracking: “A great philosopher said, ‘It’s better to be inside than be outside wet,’ “and that philosopher is me,” drawing laughter from the capacity crowd, many donning Aran sweaters and other Irish garb.
As the sound of Celtic music played by bagpipers and drummers filled the room during the cultural event in honor of Ireland’s patron saint, Dargan toasted his forebears with more than 100 of his closest friends and family members from near and afar, along with a sea of shamrock-clad dignitaries, including former and current political leaders and fire and police officials, and descendants of folks from the Emerald Isle.
Dargan, a longtime member of the West Haven Irish American Club and former member of the Knights of St. Patrick in New Haven, said he was grateful to receive the city’s “Irish Person of the Year” award.
“I am overwhelmed because I know everyone here,” said Dargan, who turns 70 on March 29. “You are my angels, you are my family. I love you, and thank you for being here on my behalf.”
He and his siblings — Robert Dargan III, Timothy Dargan and Mary Margaret Dargan — were born and raised by their hardworking parents, Robert Dargan Jr. and the former Margaret Glacken, in a traditional Irish Catholic household on Richards Place in the center of West Haven.
Steve Dargan attended public schools and graduated in 1973 from West Haven High School, where he ran track. He also attended Quinnipiac College.
The Irish Person of the Year distinction runs deep in Dargan’s family. His father, now deceased, received the award in 2012. The Dargans are the first father and son to receive the honor.
At the midday ceremony, Borer also presented an Irish flag to Dargan, a former sales representative and longtime resident of the city’s Beach Street neighborhood.
He was accompanied onstage by grandnephew Pierce Dargan, 12, and grandniece Reagan Neal, 7, along with Mary Dargan, of West Haven, and Tim Dargan, of Chesterfield, New Jersey.
Robert Dargan, of Branford, was unable to attend.
Among those attending were 2025 Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade Grand Marshal Cathleen Patricia Steinau, of West Haven, Queen Keira Integlia, of Branford, and Honor Attendant Madison Morris, of Hamden. Other attendees included state Comptroller Sean Scanlon, state Sen. Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, who has been the Senate president pro tempore since 2015, and former West Haven Mayors Edward M. O’Brien and H. Richard Borer Jr.
The opening procession was led by members of the West Haven Police Honor Guard and the New Haven County Firefighters Emerald Society Pipes & Drums.
After 2013 Parade Queen Fiona Stewart Jimenez, of West Hartford, sang beautiful renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Irish national anthem, “Soldier’s Song,” retired Pastor Mark R. Jette, West Haven’s 2010 Irishman of the Year, offered an Irish blessing, complete with a touch of Irish humor.
The invocation was followed by remarks by St. Patrick’s Day Committee member David Coyle, the master of ceremonies, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, who thanked Dargan for his “many years of friendship and support” before presenting him with a Congressional Record statement.
State Rep. Bill Heffernan, D-West Haven, presented Dargan with a General Assembly citation on behalf of the city’s delegation.
Former Connecticut House Speaker Thomas D. Ritter delivered remarks about his “dear” friend Dargan, and Joseph Rodriguez, the deputy state director of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s Hartford office, presented the honoree with a certificate of special recognition.
Borer then issued laudatory remarks about Dargan, who represented West Haven’s 115th District from 1991 to 2017 as a Democratic member of the state House.
“Today we owe a debt of gratitude words cannot fully capture — what Steve has taught all of us, which is how to lead with heart and purpose,” said Borer, the city’s 2014 Irishwoman of the Year. “Thank you for your unwavering commitment, Steve, to our community, to the Irish heritage, and to our state and our city.”
The mayor followed by reading the proclamation to Dargan: “Steve has devoted his life to public service, has mentored our youth through sports and community involvement, has been a friend to many across Connecticut, and has a positive contagious humor.”
The program also featured performances of “The Minstrel Boy” and “The Wearing of the Green” by the emerald society, which dedicated the renditions to Dargan, a former volunteer for West Haven Hook and Ladder Company 1 who served on the First Fire Taxation District’s Board of Fire Commissioners from 1980 to 2004.
Dargan also served on the City Council from 1985 to 1991 and is a former member of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs.
He is a lifetime member of West Haven’s Elks Lodge 1537.
For 20 years, Dargan was a co-chair of the General Assembly’s Public Safety and Security Committee, which oversees all matters related to civil preparedness, state and municipal police, and the overall safety of residents.
He served on the Gaming Policy Task Force, the Police Pursuit Task Force and the Private Security Personnel Task Force. He also served on the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee and the Insurance and Real Estate Committee.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Dargan was the state’s first elected official to serve in a CIA counterterrorism unit, calling the experience “one of the highlights of my career.”
In January 2017, shortly before the start of the 2017 legislative session, Dargan resigned to take a job on the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, which he still holds.
His propensity for volunteerism includes formerly serving on the West Haven Flood and Erosion Control Commission and chairing the Ken Strong Stadium Commission.
For many years, Dargan paid it forward by coaching youth baseball and basketball. He was also an assistant basketball coach on West Haven High’s 1987 CIAC Class LL championship team.
For four decades, Dargan was the voice of West Haven High football, serving as the Blue Devils’ public address announcer.
He is a former member of the West Haven Umpires Association and the Greater New Haven Baseball Umpires Association, along with the Connecticut Jaycees and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Dargan has received numerous civic awards, including the Notre Dame High School Knights of Honor in 2015.
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