Pictures of St. Paddy’s Day in Honolulu      

Picture Hawaii – what do you see?  Probably grass-skirted hula dancers swaying to ukulele music, and yourself sipping Mai Tais in a tiki bar on Waikiki – palm fronds rustling in the balmy trade winds and suntanned surfers riding towards shore on the white-frothy crests of turquoise waves.  But it’s March 17^th and I’m standing in front of Fort DeRussy watching the marching bands tuning up their instruments and forming into ranks to begin the 53^rd annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Kalakau Street through Waikiki.

Throughout the far-flung corners of the Irish Diaspora, from Nova Scotia to Australia and New York to San Francisco – south to Savannah and even Honolulu, with pipes and drums and a wearing of the green, St. Patrick’s Day is a day for celebrating all things Irish, drinking the Guinness and foot-tapping Irish music, and most of all – for parades.

The very first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in 1761 and the following year the longest continually staged St. Patrick’s Day parade made its debut in New York City.

Predating statehood, the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Waikiki has been presented by the Hawaii chapter of the Society of the Friends of St. Patrick (formerly the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick) since March 17, 1956, on the first anniversary of the Society’s charter.

Through the course of the year a number of the members of the Society worked to organize the event, but Jim Murphy was the man in charge on parade day.  Early on things seemed to be a bit chaotic but everything came together and at 12:00 Noon the parade began.

“I have to give a lot of credit to all of the organizers involved,” Mr. Murphy declared.  “Somehow, we pulled order out of chaos and were able to slot every group in where they belonged and then, under the flawless direction of Chuck Wall, merged the marching bands in between their ranks as they streamed by the staging area.  We also owe a lot to the Honolulu Police Department. It was their brisk efficiency that cleared the streets, gradually closing lanes on Kalakaua Street and blocking off the side streets.  It was their perfect timing that allowed us to start on time and to do so smoothly.”

A little after one o’clock the parade arrived at its terminus, Kapiolani Beach Park, after which participant and spectator, alike, repaired to their favorite pub for a pint or two and some great Irish music.

Almost every town has at least one Irish pub.  In Honolulu, halfway around the world from the other Emerald Isle, you’ll find six – Kelly O’Neil’s, the Irish Rose, O’Toole’s, Murphy’s, J.J. Dolan’s and Ferguson’s and St. Paddy’s Day is the biggest, most important day of year for the pubs and for their patrons.

We went first to Kelly O’Neil’s in Waikiki for corned beef and Guinness and then went on downtown for the St. Patrick’s Day block party on Nuuananu Avenue.  At 5:00 it was crowded.  By 10:00, when I left, you could hardly make your way through the throngs.  Thousands turned out for the parade and for the block party – the majority of them decked out in emerald green, for it doesn’t matter your last name or your ancestry.  On St. Patrick’s Day we’re all Irish for a day.

Along with its annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Society of the Friends of St. Patrick also holds its annual Emerald Ball a week or so prior to the day of the parade.  The Ball is a fundraiser for the Society’s education fund, which awards scholarships to deserving high school students, who are both Hawaii residents and U.S. citizens, to attend any two or four year accredited college in the United States.

The original Friendly Sons of St Patrick was founded in 1771 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Among its founders were members of the Continental Congress and high-ranking military officers, including the father of the U.S. Navy, Commodore James Barry.

The Society’s support of the American Revolution was acknowledged by honorary member, General George Washington, who said, "I accept with singular pleasure, the ensign of so worthy a fraternity as that of the Sons of St. Patrick in this city – a society distinguished for the firm adherence of its members to the glorious cause in which we are embarked."