Green shirts, beads and beer flooded the streets of South Boston again Sunday, as those who are Irish and everyone else came out for a sunny 119th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
“It’s a great day for the city,” said Southie resident Judy, who’s come to the parade since the 1960s. “Everybody looks forward to it, and it speaks to the Irish history of South Boston. My mother and her parents were from Southie, so it was my great-grandparents that came from Ireland, like a lot of people. It’s always had a very symbolic meaning to people who live here.”
The parade, put on by the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, began at 1 p.m. and lasted several hours, looping from the Broadway Station through the neighborhood to the Andrew Square T stop.
Bostonians were the first residents in North America to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, according to the Allied War Veteran’s Council site, with the first parade held in 1737. The parade moved to South Boston in 1901, the center of the city’s Irish community and home of Dorchester Heights where Evacuation Day is commemorated.
The parade also celebrates Evacuation Day, a Suffolk County-specific holiday marking the 1776 evacuation of British forces from Boston after an 11-month siege of the city during the Revolutionary War.
Residents showed up Sunday in everything from kilts and flat caps, to green beards and wigs, to Grinch and Care Bear costumes.
“People just love to show the spirit,” said Jack Kelly, dressed in a giant sparkly leprechaun hat and fake orange beard. “We’re all Irish today.”
The parade featured a wide cast of floats and marchers, including bands bagpiping and belting out songs like “Sweet Caroline,” organizations flinging candy and t-shirts, and union trucks laying on their horns.
Judy noted the parade has changed a lot over the years, getting more rowdy and political, but praised the performers and the bands.
“It’s the kids that love to parade,” she said. “To listen to the music, to be together with family, makes the day.”
“We all love being here together every year,” said Margaret Kelly, standing with a large family on East Broadway as a flock of motorcycles roared by and a man hollered about the “luck of the Irish.” “Everyone’s so excited. This is what Southie’s all about.”
