Spring kicked into full gear with a sea of green as Bostonians and Massachusetts residents gathered Sunday afternoon for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston.
Typically, the parade, which takes place the Sunday following St. Patrick’s Day, pulls in an average of 500,000 or more Bostonians.
Revelers lined the path of the parade, which started at 1 p.m., in order to catch sight of the different floats and performers that filled the streets during the parade.
Many attendees traveled to the parade by way of the T, getting out at Broadway Station, the start of the parade route. The procession ended in
Andrew Square soon after 3 p.m.
The massive influx of people riding the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority trains caused some back up, particularly within the first hour of the parade and immediately after if it ended.
MBTA spokesperson Lydia Rivera said that the heavy ridership was “similar to rush hour,” in an email.
In order to deal with the increase in riders, the MBTA implemented “extra service [and] personnel at Broadway and Andrew Stations in South Boston to ensure smooth flow,” Rivera said. “Service ran without any hiccups carrying thousands of parade goers.”
Although according to Rivera the MBTA was able to deal with the inundation of parade-goers without any significant problems, Boston Police Department officials reported there were many incidents at the parade itself.
There was a heavy police presence at the parade in order to deal with the thousands in the streets of South Boston, though the exact number of officers was not made public.
According to BPD spokesman officer James Kenneally, public intoxication and drinking caused a number of situations which police had to become involved with.
Over the course of the parade, 11 arrests were made and 380 civil citations were given out.
The civil citations were all given to people who were drinking in public.
Although some people ran into problems at the parade, for most, it was a time to celebrate their Irish heritage.
Paul Isaacs, who said he grew up in South Boston, has been attending the parade for about 30 years.
“I’ve never been in the parade, I’ve always been a bystander, but I’ve lived in South Boston all my live,” Isaacs said. “[The parade represents] Irish pride, Irish heritage.”
Family was another reason that people were brought together at the parade.
“I come to the parade every year because my daughter has a. . . cafe right here so I come here to help out with that,” said Kyle Turner, who said he lives in northeastern Massachusetts.
“It’s a pretty good parade and they have an awful lot of different things. . .it’s a good time, people have fun,” Turner said. “[It represents] community, getting together to have a fun day together.”
However for some, it was not truly representative of a traditional St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
“I thought it was fun, but it wasn’t Irish,” said Adele, who preferred to not use her last name.
Adele said she lives in Boston, though she has Irish roots and is originally from England.
“The massive difference is that in a proper St. Patrick’s Day parade you get loads of Irish dancers and way more bands, and people that were actually Irish, whereas the bands were mostly Scottish, and there were just a lot of drunks, so it wasn’t incredibly Irish, but it was fun,” Adele said.
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