St. Patrick's Day Parade

History

San Francisco's first St. Patrick's Day celebration in 1851, at the height of the Gold Rush excitement, was marked by a party in Hayes Valley Park and a Shamrock Ball that night at the Eagle Saloon on Pacific Street above Kearny. "Here in California, " remarked the Daily Alta California, "our Irish citizens and their descendents have not as yet sufficiently organized themselves as to make a very marked demonstration."

The following year the San Francisco Hibernian Society held its first annual banquet at the Irving House on Montgomery Street. As was the custom at the time, the Chairman offered a number of formal toasts which were received and responded to by attendees at the banquet. The first toast that night, after the obligatory honor to St. Patrick, was offered to "The United States-noblest and grandest monument of human liberty." Even before honoring their native Ireland then, the assembled Hibernians saw fit to recognize their adopted home.

On March 17, 1853, the Association of the Sons of the Emerald Isle sponsored the first annual St. Patrick's parade in San Francisco. "The procession was a long one," a contemporary newspaper reported, "and was composed of fine, robust, healthy looking men, the bone and sinew of a country." Following the parade, a large group repaired to the "Sans Souci" district, in the sand hills near Fulton and Divisadero Streets, for a target shooting competition. That night the Sons of the Emerald Isle gave a grand ball at Armory Hall at Montgomery and Sacramento. The year 2002 thus marks the 150th anniversary of San Francisco's St. Patrick's parade.

The 1854 parade formed up in front of the Musical Hall at Bush and Montgomery Streets at 9 a.m. on March 17th. The group, according to contemporary news accounts then "marched through the principal streets of the city," before making its way to Mission Dolores where an oration was delivered. The marchers then returned to Portsmouth Square where the parade was disbanded. The Hibernian Society's banquet that year was held at Wilson's Exchange on Sansome Street. The festivities of the day closed with a grand ball at Musical Hall where the day's celebrations had begun earlier.

In 1855 the procession formed again in front of Musical Hall and then proceeded to St. Mary's Cathedral, and then on to Russ Gardens in the Mission. Featured in the parade was "a grand cavalcade of 1,010 members of the [sons of Erin] society, mounted and wearing rich and tasteful regalia of the order."

Irish America's enthusiasm for its adopted home was not always returned in kind. In 1856, after the customary toast to the United States, Richard Tobin hoped that "may the mean and narrow minded never have the power to lessen the splendor of her nationality or alienate the love of Irishmen from this home of their election and hopes." A few months later the fears he alluded to took concrete form. That summer the Second great Vigilance committee, which had effectively seized the reins of government from the regularly constituted officials, would banish 100 of its enemies from the city, under pain of death should they return. Their "enemies" were Irish to the man.

Anti-Irish antipathy those years found expression in pranks disrespectfully displaying effigies of Ireland's patron saint. On March 17, 1860 early risers were greeted by the sight of an effigy of St. Patrick lashed to the halyard on public flagpole on Portsmouth Square opposite city hall. The figure had a ring of potatoes around its neck, a whiskey bottle in one hand, and a shillelagh in the other. An outraged delegation of Irishmen visited police headquarters and demanded the offending figure be removed. Before officialdom could swing into action, however, members of the crowd took matters into their own hands, cut down the pole, and burned the effigy.

In 1866 the parade extended for more than half a mile from its start at Union Square, as it made its way along Stockton Street, through what is now the Financial District and South of Market. The 1875 parade consisted of nine divisions led by a platoon of mounted police officers followed by eight divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, over 2,000 men attired in "neat green and silver regalia." By then, any attempt to hang St. Patrick would have been an extremely dangerous proposition.

St. Patrick's day parades over the next century and half would vary their routes as the city grew and changed, and the annual celebrations would feature a number of different themes reflecting the concerns of the time of Irish people at home and abroad. In 1854 Thomas Bellew McManus reminded the assembled Hibernians of William Smith O'Brien, still in exile in Australia. The Grand Fenian Ball at Union Hall was a highlight of the festivities in 1866 and in 1875 the Knights of the Red Branch (KRB) sponsored their fourth Nationalists Ball. In 1906 Father Peter Yorke, the labor priest, and Dr. Douglas Hyde, the apostle of the Gaelic Movement, shared the podium at the Native Sons Hall. In 1922 Terence McSweeny's sister Mary spoke on behalf of the Free State and in 1926 his brother, Peter, was guest of honor at the Grand Concert and Ball, organized at Civic Auditorium by Lieutenant, and later Chief of Police, Michael Riordan. In 1946, Lieutenant Commander Daniel J. Callaghan Jr., son of the hero who commanded the cruiser "San Francisco" in World War II was on the reviewing stand.

More recently, San Francisco's celebrations have taken still different turns as the "old country" struggled with the controversial issues of the last several decades. By 2001 with a real chance of peace in the offing, the parade's theme was "Ireland by the Bay."

As with everyone else, the September 11 attack on New York's World Trade Center has caused Irish San Francisco to evaluate its place in today's troubled world. A speaker at the Hibernian banquet in 1852 ended his remarks with the prediction that "monarchical cynics may deride, and political abstractionists question, the stability of [the nation's] structure, but the future will find it a Union as indestructible as the memory of its founder is immortal."

While the themes may have varied over the years, the esteem and gratitude of Irish people for their adopted home would always be featured at the center of their celebrations. Year after year, the flag bearing the Harp of Erin and the Star Spangled Banner, inextricably intertwined with each other, commanded center stage at banquets and balls as the emblem of the Irish of San Francisco.

On March 17, 2002, San Francisco's Irish will march again to reaffirm that claim made in 1852 and repeated over the years since. The theme selected for this year's parade says it all: "Thank You America."