Tradition Marches On For The Wee Folk Of Washtenaw And Talman

CHICAGO (BEVERLY) — And, tradition marched on. Not how it usually does, but the South Side Irish Parade did indeed occur on Sunday, March 15. The "Wee Folk Of Washtenaw And Talman," a group with less than 10 people present Sunday— and the original parade buggy that's been in the parade every year since 1979 — marched down the sidewalks along Western Avenue along the parade route during the would-be parade time to keep the South Side Irish Parade tradition going for the 42nd consecutive year.

Members of the Coakley and Hendry families were among the small group that marched with the buggy Sunday afternoon. Jim Smith, co-chair of the 2020 South Side Irish Parade committee, was also there as the march made its way south past County Fair Foods.

The Coakley and Hendry families are the founders of the South Side Irish Parade, which started in 1979 when a few families marched around Washtenaw Avenue, 109th Street and Talman Avenue on St. Patrick's Day as a pitch to "Bring Back St. Pat's" to the South Side.

READ MORE: Wee Folk To Western — A History Of The South Side Irish Parade

Marianne Coakley, one of the Wee Folk parents who has marched in every single parade since the first one in 1979, was there on Sunday and said the group began its trek to Western at 109th and Washtenaw where it all began. Photos from this "impromptu pop-up" can be found here on Facebook.

Coakley previously has made it known that the South Side Irish Parade tradition is never interrupted. Even when the parade was not held in its traditional sense back in 2010 and 2011 after it was cancelled following a disruptive 2009 event, the parade founders did the exact same thing they did this year.

"We are never interrupted," Coakley said.

Concerns regarding the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19, which as of Sunday afternoon includes 93 cases in Illinois, caused the cancellation of the parade a few days before it was set to take-off from 103rd and Western with 123 entries.