By Mary Whitfill, News Staff
Since America’s first St. Patrick’s day celebration, held in Boston in 1737, festivities for the long-standing Irish tradition have annually taken over the city in mid March. Drawing more than 600,000 visitors each year, Boston hosts one of the nation’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in South Boston – “or Southie” – the city’s traditionally Irish neighborhood.
By far the most popular St. Patrick’s Day activity in Boston, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Southie draws residents of all ages as thousands of people line the streets of South Boston hoping to catch a glimpse of the most festive floats and famous participants.
“The parade went well, the crowds always enjoy it,” parade organizer Philip Wuschke Jr. said. “I’ve had quite a few emails and people are posting pictures to the Facebook page, letting us know that they had a good time.”
This year, 132 groups and participants took to the streets, including the Boston Fire Department, the Boston Police Gaelic Column, Ghostbusters United, the Clowning for Kidz Foundation and the Lexington Minuteman.
The official parade was followed by the second annual St. Patrick’s Day Peace Parade, an alternate parade formed after the organizers of the official parade banned LGBT groups from participating.
“It’s such a huge get together of people in Boston and it gives 30,000 people an excuse to drink and party in the name of a holiday,” Natalia Hut, a freshman finance and marketing major who attended the parade for the first time, said. “I liked all the performers and most of the floats – it was a much bigger affair than I expected it to be.”
While Boston officials do their best to foster a festive and family-friendly environment, problems are bound to arise with almost a million people celebrating what Time Magazine dubbed one of America’s “Top 10 Drunkest Holidays.”
The Boston Police Department (BPD) reported issuing 336 citations for drinking in public and making 33 arrests, primarily for disorderly conduct, the majority of which occurred at the parade. These numbers are consistent with those in recent years, starting from 2009 when the city drew a harder line on public drinking.
“I think, by and large, behavior from people attending the parade has always been consistently good,” BPD Officer James Kenneally, a department spokesman, said. “People who attend to the parade generally do so in a safe, responsible and fun manner, but there are always people who get a little out of hand.”
Among those who got out of hand was 25-year-old Patrick Kelly of Lowell who was arrested by Transit Police on Sunday for assault & battery with a dangerous weapon after kicking a 19-year-old woman in the throat when she refused to go to a bar with him after the parade.
According to Kenneally, college students in Boston do not often make a notable impact on crime rates around St. Patrick’s Day.
While Southie notoriously draws the largest crowds every year, the city also plays host to plenty of other St. Patrick’s Day-themed events, popular among those looking to avoid the daunting crowds of South Boston.
Events included The Black Rose Irish Breakfast where guests poured the first Guinness of the day at 8 a.m., a Dropkick Murphy’s concert at the House of Blues, the Saint Paddy’s Luck of the Irish Pub Crawl and St. Patrick’s Day at the Irish Cultural Centre of New England.
Choosing not to attend the parade, freshman political science major Alejandro Moreno celebrated on Saturday at Wolf’s 20th Anniversary Mardi Gras Ball at T.T. the Bear’s Place in Cambridge – St. Patrick’s Day edition.
“As a Miami native living in Boston for the first time, I had never seen anything like this for St. Patrick’s Day – there isn’t a huge Irish population where I’m from,” Moreno said. “I was busy taking in all the culture and college student fun that can be seen around St. Paddy’s Day.”
