James Barker, who died Sunday, was the pugnacious executive secretary of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celebration Committee, the group that organizes the annual march of the Irish down Fifth Avenue. He was 69 and had been suffering from a lung ailment.

Each March since he assumed control of the committee in the mid-1990s, Barker became the focus of a controversy over whether gays would be allowed to march in the parade under banners proclaiming their organizations. Barker vociferously denied such groups the right to participate, although he encouraged homosexuals to march as individuals.

He frequently referred in his public statements to homosexuality as an illness that can be cured, and accused gay people of corrupting youth.

“We’re an Irish Catholic parade,” he told the Irish Voice last March. “We abide by the teachings of St. Patrick….”

In 2002, finances at the nonprofit parade committee were investigated by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, but no charges were brought.

Under Barker’s leadership, grand marshals of the parade included Cardinal Egan and Maureen O’Hara. Among the innovations he brought in was the first-ever Japanese bagpipe band, which was assembled by a Japanese inventor of a bagpipe-tuning device.

Barker is survived by his children, Elizabeth, Eileen, and James, and three grandchildren.