The stirring drones of bagpipes and the green, orange and white colors of the Irish flag were on full display Saturday morning as Naperville crowds celebrated their connection to the Emerald Isle during the West Suburban Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Fiddle players, traditional Irish dancers, Star Wars cosplayers, veterans organizations and more joined in the downtown celebration. Traditional Irish music, such as “Danny Boy,” mixed with the modern sounds of such tunes as “Shipping Up to Boston” by Celtic punk band the Dropkick Murphys. Thousands of people lined Mill, Jefferson and Main streets to watch the passing of parade floats and participants that included local businesses, Shriners organizations, political campaigns from both parties and Irish heritage organizations, such as the Firefighters Highland Guard of Naperville and Tunes of Glory, a bagpipe and drum corps from Warrenville.
Dan Starr, one of the Tunes of Glory bagpipers, said he enjoys performing in the Naperville parade as well as the other performances his organization does throughout the year. Starr took up the bagpipes after he retired from Alcatel-Lucent 13 years ago, and has enjoyed sharing his love of the instrument, a sentiment shared by many of Saturday’s parade-goers.
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“We just love the bagpipes,” Rebecca Hirst, of Naperville, said.
The parade was a first for Hirst’s 2-year-old daughter, Hannah Jo, who was having lots of fun receiving candy from the parade participants and getting the chance to pet the large number of dogs in attendance, including Irish setters and Irish wolfhounds.
“We’re all having so much fun and this is so well put together,” Hirst said. “There’s such a great variety of participants, it’s not all politicians.”
Karoline Goodnick, of Naperville, brought her daughter, Grace, to her first St. Patrick’s Day parade as well. Grace was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 2015 and the family took that as a sign they needed to dive into their Irish heritage, which will include the cooking of 50 pounds of corned beef for Grace’s first birthday party on St. Patrick’s Day.
“It’s funny that we’ve never been to the parade before, but now we’re doing all things St. Patrick in honor of Grace,” Goodnick said.
Wearing orange pants and a green-and-white shirt, Bret Daniel also enjoyed celebrating his Irish heritage. For the past six years, Daniel and his family have made it a point to travel to Naperville from Milwaukee to visit with friends and attend the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“This is an event that we really enjoy,” Daniel said as his children made sure to snatch up green beads and candy thrown by parade participants.
Chuck Corrigan, president of West Suburban Irish and St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman, said this year’s parade included about 100 different organizations and more than 5,000 participants marching in the event. The line of parade participants stretched for more than a mile from beginning to end and took more than an hour for the last group to leave the parade starting point at Naperville North High School.
Corrigan credited the pleasant weather in helping to bring additional participants into the parade as well as larger crowds out to enjoy the day.
“It’s been a really good turnout,” he said.
Alex Keown is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.