It’s not just luck: Irish culture and welcoming attitude highlighted around St. Patrick’s Day
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
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- Participants enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City on March 15, 2025.
If you head to Salt Lake City on Saturday and are wearing green, you’ll probably feel right at home.
The Hibernian Society of Utah will be celebrating its 49th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celtic Celebration starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“I always tell people that this is the best party in Salt Lake City all year,” said Sean Clark, president of the Hibernian Society of Utah. “We obviously have this great parade, where we get a wide participation. Some entries that are just families walking together in kind of this joyous celebration of who they are. It’s very much about crowd participation as well.
“Everyone wears green. My No. 1 recommendation is find and wear some green. You have people wear a green shirt to they have to those who have a total St Patrick’s Day outfit planned. It’s just a lot of fun and creativity.”
Clark has been involved with his family since the event began and told about how the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in Salt Lake City was just four guys in a bar in 1977 who decided they wanted to have a parade.
“They were told by Salt Lake that they had to have a permit to do something like that,” Clark said. “So the next year, they got organized and they did. It’s grown from a few friends wanting to celebrate their Irish heritage to all the Irish families in Salt Lake City and beyond.”
People come from the Provo area as well as Ogden, St. George and even other states like Idaho and Montana, according to Clark.
“It’s just a wider community celebration, because it’s not just Irish people coming down to have a good time,” Clark said. “It’s people recognizing that this is a fun celebration and the Irish are sharing their culture. It’s a fun day for everyone. We always say everyone’s Irish on St Patrick’s Day, and it’s a really fun way to come together as a community.”
Honoring Irish heritage
Clark explained that Utah has benefitted in many ways from the efforts of Irish immigrants.
“A lot of immigrants came here because their country suffered a famine and did not have good prospects, so they came to America wanting to build a better life,” Clark said. “They did, but they maintained a really strong tie and love for their homeland. I think they found comfort in one another as they tried to forge their paths within the United States.
“A lot of Irish came to Utah through work on the railroad. The transcontinental railroad was completed in Utah, and a lot of Irish people lost their jobs that day because it was done. They did a lot of work in the mines. A lot of Irish came here, actually, through conscription in the army. They would get off the boat and they’d get enlisted in the Army. There was an Army presence in Utah, so a lot of Irish people came that way. There is a large, large number of people who have Irish heritage as part of their background.”
He said that the mentality is that if anyone has any Irish ancestry, then they are tied to the little island the Romans called Hibernia (thus the name of the Hibernian Society).
“The preservation of that culture, the music, the dance, the food, and really kind of this camaraderie with love of the homeland and and roots where you come from, what your story is, can be a great way to connect with people,” Clark said. “The parade, our celebration, our society, are really centered on connecting people. It doesn’t just connect people who are of Irish descent because I think, in showing interest in other people’s stories, we’re able to connect with them on a human level.”
A season to remember
While many Irish elements permeate culture in both Utah and across the country, the middle of March is when they all coalesce around the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day.
“An Irish comedian actually kind of poled some fun at Irish Americans, because St Patrick’s Day isn’t celebrated with the same level of grandeur in Ireland as it is in America,” Clark said. “I think it’s probably because of that kind of intentionality of coming together as people of Irish descent and celebrating. It shines a spotlight on it and kind of pulls out the pieces of why is it important to us.”
He said he thinks it is very valuable to have a time to focus on that heritage and share it with the rest of the community.
“We’re celebrating the memory of our ancestors who brought us to this place where we’re celebrating in Salt Lake City, Utah,” Clark said. “It’s our home and a place that we love, but we’re really celebrating the ancestry of where we came from and how we got there.”
That tying together of the past and the present makes the season of St. Patrick’s Day particularly special.
“Our heritage and our traditions being part of who we are is what we’re sharing with people in these celebrations and in the preservation of this heritage,” Clark said.
Join the party
Clark invites everyone to come enjoy the celebration and believes it will be a great time for all ages.
“It’s a very family friendly environment,” he said. “You have a lot of kids down there and a lot of the older generation as well, so it’s multi generational. We have groups that walk their dogs in the parade. So it’s just a very inclusive and joyous event.”
In addition to the parade, there will also be the Celtic Celebration, called the Siamsa, after the parade.
“We have local Irish musicians who play traditional Irish music for us,” Clark said. “We have a large presence of Irish dance companies in Utah, amazing schools that teach Irish dance, so we have great performances from those schools. We have Irish food on hand, and we do fun things with it to give it kind of a St Patrick’s Day flair — but we make sure we have options for everybody and we have Irish beverages on hand. It’s a really, really good time for people.”
Clark, though, hopes that what really shines through is the spirit of Irish hospitality that he believes we could all benefit from.
“There are people who disagree with each other on a lot of different things, including policies surrounding immigration,” Clark said. “The Irish have this stereotype of being incredibly welcoming. The celebration of this day is about this welcoming. We want to invite you in to celebrate this culture and its people. That’s what I want people to center on, the spirit of welcoming and joy.”
For more information on the 49th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celtic Celebration, go to irishinutah.com.
There are many other local events celebrating Irish heritage as well, which can be found on the calendar on L4.
