2017 marks the 48th anniversary of the downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade, to be held on Saturday, March 11. The parade, or “Rite of Spring,” boasts more than 5,000 marchers, more than 300,000 spectators, and enough floats, bands, and helium balloons to keep everyone happy.
But the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in St. Louis was far more low key. When it was held in 1820, only about 100 Irish lived in the area, out of a total population of around 10,000.
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Between the mid-19th century and the early 20th century, many Irish residents settled in the Kerry Patch, a neighborhood described by Post-Dispatch reporter Frank O’Hare in a February 1949 article as a “crazy-quilt of ‘neighborhoods’ each staunchly self-contained; mélange of kindly and brutal, prim and riotous, pious and profane…”
The area hosted a parade every March, one of which was recounted by resident Leo Craden in a letter written to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Some of the paraders would get out of line and go into Jost’s or Kesseler’s to get a beer and then rejoin their fellow marchers.” Another letter writer remembered that, one year, the parade’s grand marshall had a white horse painted green to lead the festivities.
The annual parades continued until the start of WW1, and took a hiatus until 1970, when St. Louis Irish Consul Joseph McGlynn, Jr. kickstarted the current downtown parade. What prompted him to do so? “Well, he’s Irish!” says Eddie O’Donnell, a member of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee.
The parade steps off this Saturday from the intersection of 20th and Market downtown, moving east on Market to Broadway and then south to Clark. McGlynn, Jr. will lead the parade and Mary Mitchell O’Connor—the minister for jobs, enterprise and innovation in Ireland’s parliament—will serve as the Irish guest of honor.
See also: A conversation with St. Patrick’s Day Parade grand marshal John Saunders
After this weekend’s revelry, head to Dogtown on Friday, March 17 for another St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
