South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade

This parade has been going on for decades. I remember going to it when I was a kid. A few years ago it was getting pretty wild with bars from all over the city/​suburbs bringing bus loads of people. A couple people got arrested for fighting (and a girl for peeing in the aisle of a Walgreens, rumor has it) and the city said they were done with all the shenanigans so for about two years there was no Southside parade. The parade is back but now the rules are much stricter. No open booze, no buses (from what I’ve heard but I can’t confirm this) and no drunks. The past few years I’ve been there it seemed most people got the message and were behaving. Still a good time but if you’re looking to get sloppy expect a ride in the Paddy Wagon. :)

I went to this parade once and that was enough. The first and only time that I went was back in 2007. Even though it was cool to run into some friends of mine from high school at the parade, there were too many drunk people at this thing. I was almost 19 years old when I went and there were high school kids who were there who were so drunk. The Metra train to and from the parade was ridiculously packed as well. Going to this parade was such a waste of time. I have no desire to go back again even after all these years.

Skip the old reviews, they’re no longer relevant.
For parking, I parked at CVS and walked over to Western. Parking is very limited, and this put us close with minimal distance to walk.
The SS Parade is now very family friendly, and for those seeking to share their Irish Heritage and traditions with their children, this is now a must! Remember, this is where Chicagos original St Patricks Day a Parade started.
There is no alcohol allowed, there were no fights, and everyone was dressed in green and cheering.
I brought my 6yo and a 13yo with me, we had no problems and really enjoyed ourselves. The kids came home with tons of beads and candy, and more memories than they can begin to speak on.
The adults were great about allowing the smaller children to walk up to the gate to see the parade, parade marshals were everywhere ensuring no one was drinking and the fun was good and clean.
We will be back next year!

The parade is scheduled for March 26, 2014. New this year is a fun run, which starts at 11:00, followed by parade kick-​off at noon.
If you need a break, stop by Beverly Covenant Church (10 545 S. Claremont, 1 block east of Western at 106^th Street). As in previous years, the church will be open during the parade for clean washrooms, drinks, and snacks. No charge, but donations always welcome, of course.

I am treading into risky territory with this review. You see I am a distinctly non Southsider married to a very public Southsider. My disparaging comments may come back to haunt me. Some ex girlfriend of my very public husband may someday accost me at a wedding of some couple that I never met that I am required to attend and say «who do you think you are? Criticizing our traditions, and how the f**k did you ever marry Brian anyway?». Not that this a direct quote of a previous experience but it might be… I digress.
Oh, the golden age of the drunken debauchery is over. The days of unprecedented drunken stupidity in the name of Ireland’s patron saint ending in various displays of the best violence that the Southside Irish could present. Within 20 minutes I saw no less than 3 mob brawls at the end of the parade in 2007. No wonder there was a plea from the residents for change.
The recent incarnation of the parade is a tamer more typical family friendly environment. Perfect timing for my young family. Drunken foolishness for my 20’s and family friendly fun for my 30’s. I guess that I was in the right place at the right time.
Is it worth checking out? Yes. Can you still have fun? Yes. I can see why it is beloved by the Southsiders when you compare it to the hyper organized and patrolled downtown parade, this has a distinctly neighborhood feel. That being said, I think that I can find the same level of revelry closer to home now; say Elmhurst.

I went this year (2012) to see if the parade went back to what the parade USED to be about. Fantastic!!! The organizers did such a kick ass job. There were 60 floats instead of the 120 floats that were there a few years back, parade was done in 60 – 70 minutes. The parade started at 11am compared to the time starting at noon. There were police and a security team everywhere! I love it! I noticed at 9:30am that morning that there were several police waiting on the train platform at 111^th longwood, waiting for anyone getting off the train with beer and throwing it out. Come on everyone, they (Beverly) has been announcing it for several months, no BS with people getting drunk, so no one should have been surprised that it will NEVER go back to that «animal house» partying again.

I never thought I would say this, but the parade this year wasn’t so horrible. Meaning, I did not have to watch drunk 13 year old girls drop trou and relieve themselves on my crocuses.
After being on forced hiatus for three years, the parade committe made a lot of promises to keep the mayhem under control, and were granted a «one last chance» extension. Some friends and I walked over on parade day, and AMAZINGLY we experienced the parade the way it was 15 years ago. It was, honestly, a family event.
Positives:
*As mentioned above, no public urination or vomiting. In fact, one of the most disgusting aspects of parade day were the banks of porta-​potties which, by noon, were afloat in pools of beer/​bodily fluids, strewn with paper products, all of them with long lines of full-​bladdered inebriates waiting for their turn. No wonder kids preferred public urination. Euch. But THIS year, the porta-​potties were in pristine condition, right off the factory floor, and their were no lines.
*Bars did not open until after the parade. Trains to the area were checking and confiscating alcohol. Private security was out busting people with open liquor. Buses that brought a lot of outsiders to the neighborhood were routed to inconvenient locations. All of this added up to a parade for residents and their friends, not people from far away who wanted to get wasted, trash the neighborhood, and then go home.
*The parade route was shorter, which meant the parade was shorter, which meant the neighbrhood was not closed for most of the day and into the evening.
Negatives:
*Yes, it was closed for LESS time, but the neighborhood was still inaccessible for the better part of the day. I don’t know how this is even legal. If you live in an area, and pay taxes, you should have the right to come and go – unless the National Guard is handling a terrorist attack or something. Some people do have to work on Sunday, or they may want to just leave the area for whatever reason, and they can’t. It seems punitive. Can’t residents be issued placards for their cars that let them in and out?
*Drinking was cut way down but not eliminated – there were lots of people carrying coffee travel mugs that smelled a lot like Guinness, and babies in strollers perched on cases of beer. Everyone was pretty well-​behaved, and a little pushing at boundaries is okay… but the security measures put in place for this «trial year» will always have to be there.
* How can a city that’s always in the red and in a panic about debt, taxes, etc., afford the $ 3 million on this parade, when they’re already financing the Downtown parade for St. Pat?
*High school marching bands and bagpipe bands are always fun (it would be nice if the pipers learned to play something besides «Gary Owen,» though), but politicians are boring. And sadly, the Budweiser Clydesdales were not at this parade. Bummer.
Maybe this year is really a template for future parades, and I’ll bite the bullet once a year if this is how the parade turns out. I don’t think anyone who really loves the parade was shortchanged, and there were still plenty of family parties going on.
I hope the parade organizers are committed to repeating this experience.

Evidently, I’m not the only one still in mourning over the untimely death of the SSIP.
Oh sweet, sweet SSIP. As the wife of a 100% Irish firefighter, it will probably come as no surprise that we are highly disappointed that our children won’t grow up experiencing the chaotic insanity of this (belated) long-​standing tradition.
In my younger, more intoxicated years, I was, in fact, one of the many drunken people lining the streets, cheering on the floats, full of joy and unabashed merriment. Once our son came along, we bundled him up accordingly, strapped him into the baby carrier secure against my body, passed on the alcohol entirely, and snagged our place in line as we had done every year prior. Naturally, he adored the parade. (What can I say? He is very much like his daddy!) It saddens me that he won’t have any memories of this momentous Chicago event. Ditto for his little sisters.
Oh, sure… I’ve probably saved myself about a zillion «now, don’t do anything stupid at the parade…» lectures, but this iconic south side classic deserves a resurrection nonetheless, of course.
I’m still holding out hope. :)

RIP SSI parade. This year was a sad one for me on that fateful Sunday. I didn’t get to see one Irish step dancer, hear any bagpipers, or sing the south side irish song en masse.
It really is a shame to see something that has become such a big and important family tradition to many (32 years!) be forced to put out it’s flame. I have been going this this parade every year which started during the wee old days of still being in a stroller. I remember celebrating fully our great Irish culture with family and friends on the «Dry side» and then slowly making my way across the street over the years to feel the «culture shock» from the many drunken leprauchans wildly screaming off of Joe Bailey’s roof (RIP Joe Bailey’s).
Yes, this day eventually becomes an excuse to just drink yet another day once you reached a certain age, but it’s not just any old extra day at a bar. We proudly celebrated being Irish on THAT day while we drank our guiness and green beer. It was our way of doing so all together and accepting everyone for their «Irishness».
Now that I am getting older, I am slowly calming down and veering away from the crazy college drunks in the bars. However, it still is unfortunate that I will not be able to continue this tradition with my own kids one day. They too would have celebrated the same way I did starting off on the dry side: by being painted and clothed in green, waving an Irish flag, eating a cornbeef sandwich, and pretending to do an Irish jig.

RIP

The SSIP was the one glimmer of hope that kept me going until the springtime. I always went to this event… every frickin’ year. I knew for one day, I could be completely wasted by 11am and it was acceptable. Those of us South Siders knew this was THE St. Patrick’s day parade. Come on, dying the river green is so for the tourists. It was definitely good times. A time to celebrate the neighborhood and all things Irish. Okay maybe not so much since it does solidified the stereotype but still we need a holiday. There was always an unwritten code; children and families on one side of the street, while the drunks hung out on the bar/​tavern/​pubs’ side. It was perfect harmony and while there were incidents of hooligans, for the most part, everyone acted like little Fonzies… cool. You could go, hang out at some guy’s garage, drink beer and it didn’t matter if you knew him or not… we all were Irish and neighbors this day. Then the amateurs came into Beverly.
I would like to personally thank all those amateur assholes (i e. high school kids who behaved like chihuahuas on crack) that ruined the parade last year. It was a perfect day, perfect weather and hell I wasn’t even drunk, but rather hungover from the night before. Plus I was taking my friend to his first South Side event. You couldn’t ask for anything else; passed out fat guy, a couple’s drama in the alley behind Western, a fight in an old garage!!! My friend experience a drunken brawl and took pictures, how could that not be awesome?
Then you had people who obviously couldn’t handle alcohol. If you can’t drink one beer without acting like a douche, stay home. If you get drunk and think it’s okay to punch a cop, then stay home and maybe practice on moving up the evolution chart for once. These are the people I blamed for the dissolution of the parade. The people who took OUR event and ruined it. Can you really blame the police or the neighborhood for not wanting the hassle of hosting it?
So now it’s February and parade time would not be far off. But here I sit, not having any plans because the best damn thing in the world has been destroyed. Thanks a lot!

Fucking Irish people.
Signed,
William Patrick Molloy.
Though I will say, my best graded, best reviewed and overall favorite photo project I’ve ever done came out of showing the destructive and risky nature of the 2008 parade so I guess that’s cool. Ask me to see it some time.

I was convinced to go to this parade by a friend of mine. I’m not a fan of crowds and I’m especially not a fan of drunken frat boys. But I went on the assumption that this parade was more family-​oriented. I will agree that during the parade it was a family fun event. The procession was filled with firemen, unions, Irish dance school floats, marching bands… it got to be a little too long after a while. How many unions have a float!!! Seriously. And how many unions are there?!? An added bonus was the lack of… umm…diversity. I was glad to help out. Afterwards, is when the fun started. All the drunken fun began when the families dispersed and the frat boys remained. The cops had a good time and me and my friend walked back to the car to avoid the fray. All told 54 arrests… I’ve had my fill of Caucasian fun.

This was my first time going to the South Side Irish parade. The past 2 years we’ve been going to the downtown irish parade which I find to be good quality fun. I expected for the SSIP to be a bit more rowdy from what I heard but it definitely exceeded those expectations. There was trash everywhere (the city needs to put out more trash receptacles during well populated events). People publicly urinating on the side streets a couple of feet from the port o potties to avoid the long wait. The parade itself is family friendly but the crowds aren’t so, especially when all that alcohol is involved.
I was standing in line patiently waiting to use a port o potty. I had gotten out of line previously because I thought I could wait. 3 port a potties lined side by side. A line on each side for the 2 ends and alternating in the middle. A woman and with two young daughters probably about 4 or 5 years old proceeds to cut the line of about 10 and asks the girl in front of me if she can go first because her daughter has to use the washroom. Girl in front politely says no and that she has to wait in line like the rest of us. The woman continues to stand her ground determined to cut. Honestly if she just waited one more person I wouldn’t have put up much of a fight OR if she just went right into the middle port, no one would have said anything except maybe grumble that she should have waited like everyone else. Person gets out of the stall and the mother shoves the girl in front of me out of the way and hurriedly pushes her kids inside with her. What kind of example is this mom setting for her children. I was appalled at the behavior. The girl and the mom continue to argue, and a girl behind me asks me «Should I throw my beer at her? I’m going to throw my beer at her. Here hold my stuff!» A man also comes from the middle of the line and tries to get the mother out saying that she needs to wait in line like everyone else. She then starts screaming at him and then hitting him. After the 5^th hit he hits back with equal force, and thats when I see guys jump in and start hitting him. I felt bad for the guy because he was only standing his ground even though he shouldn’t have hit her. The mother then cries victim saying her children had to see this when she was the one that put herself in that position in the first place. Finally the cops came to break it up, don’t know if anyone got arrested b/​c I wasn’t going to stick around. I was 2^nd in line and I got out thinking I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of a mob fight over a port a potty. Ahh only drunken hostility drives people to fight over public plastic toilets.
Other than witnessing that altercation, I had fun. Maybe I would be back again but definitely more prepared with salty snacks.
P. S. If you plan on bringing your dog, please reconsider or be prepared. There were one too many dogs that looked tired, thirsty, and stepped on.

If whats-​her-​face didn’t live in Evergreen Park (walking distance of the parade) I’m not sure I’d come from out of my way to attend this parade. Well not every year anyway.
This is only my second SSIP experience. Last year, we seemed to miss the whole parade. I’m not sure if they started it earlier, we were too late, or they cut it short because of crappy weather. But we walked around with my back pack full of beer, & enjoyed the dirty drunken experience.
This year, with better weather, I was sure to have more fun. But I honestly can’t say I did. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I drank myself silly on Friday & Saturday night & my body couldn’t handle much more. Maybe I’ve gotten too used to my rule of not partying on Sunday. Or maybe there was seemingly more people this year & my claustrophobic side, that I didn’t know existed, was kicking in. Maybe I witnessed too many drunk girls puking on the side of the road, & maybe the concrete was too sticky from all the spilled beer… and drunk girls puking on the side of the road. Maybe it felt too much like a college party on steroids.
Wait…I’m complaining about these things? Whats happening to me? Am I getting too old for this stuff? NOOO!

What a boisterous morning. Glad it’s only once a year because its such a treat. I always have so much fun. There isn’t many things better than bringing out your irish pride (or fake irish pride) and celebrating with a bunch of strangers and having a good time! If you haven’t had the chance, head down green-​wig-​in-​hand, for an experience you won’t forget, or possibly even remember.

I’ve been to many a parade in my time, and this is one you can miss.
I went to the Southside Chicago St. Patty’s parade this afternoon for the first time. On the walk over there was one rather big fight/​scuffle between several of the dumbass twenty-​somethings who were so liquored up by 11 am they could not stand, but we had expected some of that kind of BS.
We arrived at 111^th and Western and it was packed three deep on both sides. Walked up to 110^th, then crossed and walked down the west side of Western to find a) a good spot to watch and b) an open bar.
Did not see ONE bar between 111^th and 115^th. Did find a good spot between 11^th and 114^th on the east side, and waited for the parade.
Dull. Boring. Groups of people waving and walking; one band; big gaps between groups. We thought we might be too far down, so we walked back towards 111^th. Nope! Boring, quiet, hardly any bands …
I don’t get it. Perhaps if you live in that area and your pals are in the parade it’s cool, but this was an utter waste of time. We left by 2 pm.
Save your time and money, go to the Northside parade and hit the bars in the Loop/​South Loop afterwards!

I experienced my first (still debating if its going to be my only) south side irish parade two years ago. The only thing I really remembered about the parade itself was the little men wearing the little hats driving the little carpet cars. Bizarre, but memorable none the less!
As for the rest of the «party» it was craziness. First there was taking the METRA down to the south side. Everyone on the train was drunk. There was no organization. I had no idea how to get a ticket or if I even needed one. Turns out I didnt need one, everyone rode free that day. At the train stop, I had a bit of ways to walk to get to the parade route.
While watching the parade, everyone around me was having a good time. Then again they were all drunk. And they were smoking. Did I happen to mention I cant drink and hate smokers? Yah… totally not my scene but I wanted to check out what all the hype was about. I did have a good time with the company I was with. Everyone was nice and my bf had the hook up with a family friend who owns a shop on the route, so we had access to a bathroom and didnt have to resort to pissing in alleyways. THANK GOD. I heard last year CPD didnt allow drinking on the streets. Maybe that helps in taming the chaos?

Yes, the SSIP is fun but you need to tackle this journey the correct way as I’ve done it correct once, and another time — not so much.
Assumption: You’re a north-​sider, heading south.
My advice: Go in on a bus package with one of the bars. Make sure they drop you off at the southern tip of the parade so you can get in the bars there first. Otherwise you are stuck heading North-​to-​South trying to get through crowds of drunken people.
No doubt, this is FUN but I can’t do it every year…
The line-​ups for the portopotty’s are horrendous. Expect permanent damage to your bladder.
DO NOT TRY TO TAKE A LEAK ANYWHERE BUT A BATHROOM. CAPS are out ticketing people for «indecent exposure» if you get caught. That kind of record doesn’t look good!!! Also, even though it appears that everyone is drinking on the street, CAPS will confiscate your alcohol or make you dump your drink if they see you. (this didn’t happen in 2006, but it happened in 2008)

There are rules about the South Side Parade. First, keep your beer in a cup. This is just how it goes. Second, don’t act like a jerk. Third, don’t mess with the police down there. Think about it; if you were them, would you have any patience for a bunch of drunk kinds who flood down from the north side to make a mess of their neighborhood? If you obey the rules, you’ll have fun. My boy lives for St. Pats so I expect to be back every year!