South Side Irish: Parade had humble beginnings (Chicago Tribune) -- Irish Media Watch Message Board

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Date Posted: 20:12:41 03/26/09 Thu GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: South Side Irish: Parade had humble beginnings (Chicago Tribune)

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-south-side-irish-historymar26,0,3579606.story

chicagotribune.com

South Side Irish: Parade had humble beginning

17 children marched around West Morgan Park block in 1979

Tribune staff report

March 26, 2009

The South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade was started in 1979 by neighbors and best friends—George Hendry and Pat Coakley—for their children. They wanted to avoid the revelry of the downtown parade. But over three decades, the revelry came to their neighborhood—leading to Wednesday's announcement that the parade was ending.
The routeThe first parade, on March 17, 1979, featured only 17 marchers—all children. They paraded around their block in West Morgan Park. The original float was a baby buggy covered with a box decorated with shamrocks and flags of the 26 counties in Ireland. The second parade moved from the sidewalks to the side streets, beginning at Kennedy Park. The third parade in 1981 moved from side streets to the main street, Western Avenue from 103rd to 113th Street.
The numbersAfter starting with 17 children, the parade had 300 participants the following year. By 2003, an estimated 375,000 people were in attendance. About 300,000 were there this year.
The three p'sIn 1981 the tradition of "pray, parade and party" began. Traditional paradegoers began the daylong event by attending a special parade mass at St. Cajetan Catholic Church, then gathered to watch the parade and followed it with parties with friends and families.
The politicsThe first grand parade along Western Avenue in 1981 lacked police protection. Why? A bitter feud between Mayor Jane Byrne and Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes, who was Democratic committeeman of the 19th Ward. But Byrne appeared in the parade in 1988 while running for clerk of the Circuit Court. During the early days, politicians had to choose which St. Patrick's Day parade to appear in—the Loop or the South Side—because of intense rivalry between the two. Unlike the downtown affair, where politicians vie for prime positions at front, here they got relegated to the center and rear.
The mishapsIn 2006 the float of Rep Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) issued a thick white cloud of smoke, sending him running and firefighters to the rescue. The crowd cheered mercilessly. This year, the parade's Web site warned that police would conduct drunken-driving checkpoints in the area and urged drivers to stay sober.
Special guestsFrank Feighan, a senator in Ireland, declared the South Side parade better than the downtown parade in 2006. Eamon Hickey, counsel general of Ireland, and 11 firefighters from the Limerick Fire Brigade show up in 2000. The mayor of Galway, Ireland, came a few times, including 1997 and 1998. Chief Gary White Dear of the Choctaw Nation, which helped the Irish during the great potato famine, marched in the parade and was made an honorary Irishman in 1997. Pat Buchanan came in 1996. The presidential elections in 1988 drew then-Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.); his wife, Tipper; Illinois Sen. Paul Simon; and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.
—Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Sources: Tribune archives and southsideirishparade.org

Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

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