{Photograph} by Religion
For one weekend this month, Atlanta, like Chicago, will flood with inexperienced. However missing a river as we do, it’s Peachtree Avenue that can run emerald when the Irish and their buddies march in celebration of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Eire.
This 12 months marks the 141st St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Atlanta, making it one of many longest constantly operating parades within the metropolis. The occasion was began in 1858 by the Hibernian Benevolent Society, an Irish cultural group, for Atlanta’s then-small Irish immigrant group.
The primary parade, as reported by the Atlanta Structure, was held in 1872. It started on the nook of Broad and Marietta Streets downtown and adopted a Catholic mass delivered by a priest named by the paper solely as Father Duggan. The parade has paused simply thrice: throughout World Wars I and II and for the pandemic.
All through its lengthy historical past, Atlanta’s celebration has migrated across the metropolis. In 1996, the parade moved from downtown to Buckhead after Fado Irish Pub opened there. “It’s not official that we go the place the Irish pubs are, however that is perhaps the fact,” says Sinead Connaughton, a member of the parade committee and Irish Community Atlanta. “When the Buckhead location closed, the Midtown Fado primarily turned our HQ.” The parade now begins at Woodruff Arts Middle and heads 10 blocks down Peachtree Avenue to Fifth Avenue, with an after-party at Fado.
Irish Community Atlanta took over operations from the Hibernians in 2016, with targets to develop the parade to rival bigger celebrations in Savannah and the Northeast. To take action, the parade committee has embraced any and all teams with even modest Irish connections, which brings points of interest one can’t discover elsewhere.
Alongside conventional Irish dancing and music, there are notable Irish athletes, a float designed as an Irish pub by the O’Riordan household, and terriers and dachshunds—conventional Irish canine breeds—from DREAM Rescue in Marietta. Considerably extra off-brand, however no much less in style, are Atlanta’s Nocturnal Pirates and Atlanta Ghostbusters, in addition to a contingent of llamas, spiffily wearing leprechaun hats. “Some issues are odd, but it surely creates the environment that does the nation proud,” Connaughton says. “It additionally attracts extra than simply Irish to attend, and our objective is to share this celebration.”
Final 12 months, greater than 3,000 folks participated within the parade, representing 100 Irish organizations, and have been considered by greater than 20,000 spectators. This 12 months, Peachtree TV will broadcast the parade dwell, which the committee hopes will convert extra viewers into parade attendees.
Connaughton, who moved from Dublin, Eire, to Atlanta in 2016, is married to an American and elevating her household right here. She belongs to a number of Irish teams, together with the parade committee, to stay related to her heritage. “The parade has develop into much more necessary for me to share Eire with my two-year-old daughter,” says Connaughton. “Final 12 months, she truly thought the parade was for her. In a manner, it’s, as a result of we need to move it down.”
This text seems in our March 2025 difficulty.
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