Southie goes green for St. Patrick's Day

The thousands of emerald-clad parade-goers lining Broadway Street in South Boston Sunday afternoon for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade proved that although it was the day after the official holiday, the party is not over until Boston says it is.

Honoring a Boston staple since 1901, crowds gathered yesterday to watch bands, politicians and street performers wind their way through the streets of a city rich in Irish tradition. With 86,700 people with Irish heritage living in Boston, it ranks as the highest ancestry population in the Hub, according to the United States Census's 2005 American Community Survey.

Though a group of police officers on bikes interrupted the festivities on the street to write tickets to rowdy underage drinkers, South Boston policeman Bernie Rivers, who has worked at the parade for most of the past 24 years, said the crowd, on the whole, was not overly disruptive.

"I'd say there was a higher number of people here today than usual," he said.

Numbers for the parade turnout were not available from the Mayor's press office last night, but many local businesses, as well as occasional street vendors, set up shop to take advantage of the spirited crowd.

Genevieve Hayes served burgers, hot dogs and clam chowder throughout the windy afternoon at the corner of Broadway and A streets for Amreihn's Restaurant.

"This is the second year we did this," Hayes said. "It brings in a lot of business. We were very busy earlier, but as the parade has gone on, the [number of] customers have died down."

Hayes, a sophomore at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., said her hometown holds a better St. Patrick's Day parade, but on a much smaller scale.

"This is definitely one of the better parades, much better than the one in Newport," she said. "The difference is that this one is probably bigger -- a lot bigger."

On a weekend when green is definitely in, Zachary Kahn, a recent Northeastern University graduate and Brookline native, was one of many street vendors hawking green products, as he sold Irish Pride flags to parade goers.

"I've been doing this for a while," he said. "Business is good."

Patty Peters, 27, a social worker located outside of Boston, said she went to the parade for the first time this year because she will be moving away soon.

"How can I not make it to the parade at least one year?" she said.

"I've never been to [other local] parades," she said. "I know there was an awesome one when the Sox won the World Series."