Why is there no St. Paddy's Day Parade in Jax?

[David]

That was a pretty decent block party last night. I haven't ever really seen that much foot traffic in five points.

Club 5 used to pull in some crowds but that was to one place mostly. Last night had people flowing from the block party, the Publix plaza, to around the corner at steamworks and over to starlite/wall st & raglands on the main strip.

I believe O'Brothers may have found its niche.

[Shwaz]

Last night was Bananas with a capital B

The turn out was more than I expected and the whole crowd was very civil. Zero fights/ brawls which can always be a problem when theres Irish whiskey flowing. Since my driveway leads out to Margaret St; in front of O'Brothers I just set up shop with a full cooler of my own beverages. The 2 officers patroling the crowd gave the ok drink whatever - wherever! The beer / drink lines were 40-50 people deep at all times, the pub closed off at max capacity all night and the outside bar was elbows to a**holes.

At one point some friends and I went to the patio bar for a round of Jameson and soon discovered that all the bartenders were soused and useless... we placed our order with all 4 bartenders and all 4 forgot about it hahaha eventually 1 did remember us and he gave us the 4 shots on the house.

The groungs crew went straight to work at midnight and when I left this morning there were about 4 or 5 people still out cleaning. They've done a good job so far restoring the block although I don't think they can get rid of the "pee" smell until we have some good rain 

[Prax_N_Jax]

pretty cool shindig. i was at a st. patty's day party. well oks, it was a birthday party... none the less it was a party on st. patty's...

[BridgeTroll]

Could this be a tradition in the making??  Sounds like the police were cool...

[CrysG]

Shwaz,

Thanks for taking and adding the pictures.

[David]

The cops were very cool last night. No supposed use of tear gas or ghetto birds flying low over head like what happened last july 4th. The crowd was mostly armature drinkers having a blast. Good times, good times.

[ProjectMaximus]

A weekend day closest to that date was last Saturday

Yeah, I know. That's why I said that...and I agree. Nice pics, btw.

[Jason]

Now just picture that times about 20 stretching from the Landing to Hemming with a 6:00PM parade in the mix.  HUGE!!!

[Springfielder]

Wasn't there something in Metro Park this weekend with bands playing?

That was the third annual Irish Festival, but the first time it was held at Metro Park instead of the fairgrounds. It's the only one that actually charges people to get into, the ones in any major cities do not.

This city only seems to celebrate with parades...Veterans Day and Martin Luther King Day...at least those are the only ones I can think of...

[mtraininjax]

Why do we need a parade, go north 2 hours and you get a parade, green river, and all the intoxicated coeds to last for a year! Besides, we have the MLK parade....

[Ocklawaha]

One of the driving organizations behind most St Patrick’s Day parades is the Ancient Order of Hibernians and there are no local Divisions that I know of in Duval. There may be one in St Augustine but I wasn’t able to find much information for them online.  

This is WEIRD... How many know the oldest "town" on Flemming Island is Hibernia? Seems to me it would be tough for us NOT to have Hibernians...Hee Hee. Hey, maybe they'll read this and buy a parcel to build a lodge in Hibernia. I mean like what else would be that cool?

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

BTW, if any of you make the trek to find Hibernia, you can follow US 17, about 1/2 way to greencove you'll see a Publix on the left and a historic church marker on your right. Turn left and follow the road straight ahead, right onto the dirt. The old church is well worth the effort.

OCKLAWAHA

[Jason]

Why do we need a parade, go north 2 hours and you get a parade, green river, and all the intoxicated coeds to last for a year! Besides, we have the MLK parade....

Why drive two hours when all the potential exists right beneath our feet?  I thought everyone liked parades. 

[mtraininjax]

We don't have nearly the intoxicated coeds....and after we use the river for blue or red energy, who wants to see a green river?

[blizz01]

Tradition.  Pubs.  Irish Pubs.  There are no Irish pubs downtown (since Gas Knob?).  It might only take one, though - like O'Brothers.  Savannah has plenty - that's the nucleus in my opinion.  I would be willing to bet, however, that Jax Beach has more Irish pubs per capita than Savannah or J'ville.