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SALT LAKE CITY — Crowds lined the sidewalks and balconies of the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City, dressed in their greenest and best, to take part in the 47th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday, during what might be the most eclectic procession of the year.
The sound of bagpipes, drums and fife rebounded off the two-story buildings. Dancers of all ages, pulled slowly on flat trailers, precariously jumped and kicked to lively reels from truck stereos. A pack of mangy Irish wolfhounds, each weighing 90 pounds or more, sniffed at the gutters and pulled on the leashes of their handlers.
Meghan Gibson, a director of the Hibernian Society of Utah who organizes the parade, said, "This is our family's Christmas." She is part of the second generation organizing this event, which began with her late father John Francis Welsh and three others. "I have siblings that are in the East and California — they all fly in for this."
St. Patrick's Day is a chance to "be able to celebrate our heritage openly and freely, and all the persecutions that the Irish faced over the decades and centuries," she said. But more than that, Gibson feels "it's all just coming together for a common goal."
The origins of the parade in its current form began in the '70s, according to a written account by Welsh. He said that the local Irish would meet every year at Club Stanyon Street, now Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill at 255 E. 400 South, and "sing the sweet songs, drink the green beer, and then go home very late."
In 1977, Welsh said that "at about 11:15 a.m., as the singing started, a lovely lighthearted mood filled the air and a very Irish mood settled over the place." The group, including Robert Quinn, John Brockert and Michael Rodman, took to the streets after a rowdy meal and began to march along the sidewalks and the medians of downtown Salt Lake City, picking up 10 to 15 bystanders and Club Stanyon Street patrons. The group encountered three Salt Lake City police officers on motorcycles, who began directing traffic and escorting the merry bunch to complete their parade and return to the club.
"The parade was his everything," Gibson said. "This warms my heart to see massive, incredible turnout."
Those represented in the parade included numerous dance academies, Catholic schools, trade unions, service groups and one very tired basset hound with a green bow tie, who had to be carried like a baby.
Families collected around the main stage where a siamsa — a Celtic celebration — took place, featuring musicians playing traditional Irish instruments and dancers.
According to Irish genealogist Brian Mitchell, "Three centuries of emigration from Ireland has resulted in a significant Irish diaspora, numbering 70 million people."
The height of that emigration, during the Great Famine in the middle of the 19th century, led to millions pouring into North American ports. In time, the sum total of Irish-Americans exceeded the entire population of Ireland. New York City boasted more Irish residents than Dublin, Ireland, according to the Library of Congress.
Historian Peter Stevens said that the Irish immigrant washing up on the shores of America in the 1840s was "ravaged physically and mentally by years of famine and unbroken political oppression in the Old World, having survived Atlantic storms in leaky, rat-infested, disease-riddled coffin ships."
It was common to be sold as indentured servants once landed, as a way to pay their fair, according to Mitchell. The price was 15 pounds, 10 pounds less than the cost of a cheap horse. They faced poverty, living in the nation's first tenement housing, and discrimination from nativists. Anti-Catholic sentiment resulted in riots in Philadelphia and Maine.
While many settled in cities, there was a large number of Irish who traveled West during the gold rush, according to historian Alan Noonan. Mining embodied the opportunities that optimistic Irish settlers hoped to find, establishing hundreds of communities in states like Utah, Montana, Colorado, Nevada and California. Construction of the railroads also played a significant role in the employment of many immigrant groups.
It is difficult to say when the Wasatch Front saw its first St. Patrick's Day parade. According to Irish historian Gerald McDonough, the first parade was held in Sandy and took place annually from 1864 to sometime in the 1920s, when Irish pride became less popular.
Welsh and his friends' parade began in the '70s and has continued on through the efforts of many Utah families and community groups, expanding in scope to include all who want to join.
This year's theme of "Irish Hospitality" is accurate, with organizers reaching out past the traditional borders of Irish culture to include all who wanted to celebrate in Saturday. "Everybody is Irish," Gibson said, "we pretty much accept anybody!"
