St. Patrick honored with parade, beer

Despite the apparent diversity of the crowd in Downtown’s Market Square, for Saturday at… Despite the apparent diversity of the crowd in Downtown’s Market Square, for Saturday at least, everyone was 21 and Irish.

Tooting horns, downing beers and striking up cries of “Let’s go Pitt!” students flocked Downtown en masse to watch the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade and pay homage to green beer and the patron saint of Ireland.

Celebrating along the parade route that snaked up Sixth Avenue, down Grant Street and along the Boulevard of the Allies, cousins Nicole and Lacey Justus and their friend Sarah Goff showed pride in their Irish roots.

“Everybody feels so strongly about this day, it’s better than Christmas!” Nicole Justus said.

Justus, whose father is Irish, said, “I have 22 cousins, and if you want to describe Irish people, I’d say we’re just drunken, 100-percent happy people, and we do what we want.”

Lacey Justus agreed, saying she felt that the infectious Irish spirit of the day brought out the camaraderie in everyone.

“Everybody’s so nice, too,” she said. “It was my friend’s birthday today, and everyone sang to her on the bus.”

According to the parade’s Web site, the event did more than foster a spirit of fellowship and good cheer.

In memory of what the Irish call “an gorta Mor,” or “The Great Hunger” of 1847 Ireland, the parade joined forces with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to collect donations at several locations along its route.

In addition, the parade committee awarded a $2,100 scholarship to an area student of Irish descent, crowned a Miss Smiling Irish Eyes and advertised St. Patrick’s Day discounts at local bars and restaurants on their Web site.

Many Pittsburghers make coming to the parade an annual tradition. “I come every year,” Pitt graduate Jim Robinson said. “My brother had a fire truck, and we used to put that in the parade.”

This time, Robinson watched from the sidelines, taking in the atmosphere and tailgating with green beer, and other onlookers bundled up against the cold.

This year’s parade featured a host of area school marching bands, dance teams, decorative floats, bagpipers and other local Irish groups.

Governor Ed Rendell, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Miss Pennsylvania also made appearances.

More popular with the student crowd was the plaza at Market Square. When asked what drew them away from the parade and into the pulsing sea of green in the square, Tammi Farmer and Traci O’Meara laughed, saying, “This is where the beer is.”

With Irish pride as plentiful as the green beads onlookers caught from passing floats, parade-goer Brandon Schmitt said he came “to feel the spirit of St. Patrick.”

“And because Pittsburgh is the greatest party town ever,” his friend, Meredith Schaffer added.

With reportedly the second-largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the nation, it appears that Schaffer isn’t alone in making Pittsburgh the place to party.