South Side Irish Parade celebrates heritage, community
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The South Side of Chicago celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the Irish Parade Sunday morning. It's the largest community-based parade on St. Patrick's Day outside of Ireland.
Community members celebrated not only heritage but also community pride.
CBS 2 also got in on the fun.
The parade has been a tradition since 1979 when two best friends, George Hendry and Pat Coakley, reminisced about how the official Chicago parade was on the South Side before it moved downtown.
They gathered 17 children from the community for that first parade in 1979.
Just two years later, the parade was so popular it moved to Western Avenue where marchers still march today.
