Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day: A 200-year welcome that still resonates

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - If you stumble into Savannah, Georgia around St. Patrick’s Day, you’re sure to start feeling a little lucky. The city turns unmistakably Irish—green on the streets, green on the people, and the sound of bagpipes cutting through the crowd.

Savannah Director of City Archives Luciana Sprecher says the celebration is as much about belonging as heritage.

“Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” said Sprecher. “Now you don’t have to be Irish, you don’t have to be Catholic, you just have to be here.”

Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade tradition stretches back centuries, starting in a very different form—marching on foot or horseback, with the occasional carriage.

To learn about the first Savannah parade in 1824, we spoke with Dr. Howard Keeley, a historian with the Georgia Southern Irish Research Center, who says Irish immigrants were welcomed in the Hostess City around that time.

“Savannah was really on a roll economically so they have that phrase ‘too busy to hate,’”said Keeley.

According to Keeley, the earliest organizers were a group of Catholic and Presbyterian Irishmen known as the Hibernians. Their first march wasn’t meant as a grand debut, he said—it was a welcome.

That 1824 parade formed to greet Charleston’s Catholic bishop, John England, then moved as a group from a hotel on Bay Street.

“They wanted somebody who would be an electric speaker, and that occasioned a march from the hotel on Bay Street… to St. John the Baptist,” said Keeley.

Keeley notes it wasn’t the St. John’s many visitors know today. At the time, it was a small wooden church built by French refugees from Haiti.

After Bishop England conducted services, Keeley says the bishop made an observation that still feels relevant nearly two centuries later.

“The bishop actually makes a great remark about how in Savannah, people get along with each other regardless of their religion. I think there’s something magical about that—and I think that message still resonates.”

Tuesday, Savannah’s St. Patrick’s season is bigger than a single march. Events like the Greening of the Fountain mark the lead-up, and the festivities draw visitors from around the country—and even from Ireland.

Ireland native Bridget O’Donoghue said the city’s celebration stands out.

“We come to Hilton Head and Savannah every year for 3 months and this is the best Irish culture you could get in the world.”

Organizers say what started as a welcome in 1824 is now a tradition carried forward by each new generation.

Parade committee chaplain Patrick O’Brien said seeing young people involved is what makes the moment meaningful.

“It means so much to be here, especially with all the young people here because eventually they’ll be the ones taking over from us.”

General Chairman Patrick Beytagh echoed that sentiment.

“They will be the ones to participate in all this and see it through.”

The spirit that greeted Bishop John England in Savannah more than 200 years ago—an open invitation to join in—still draws hundreds of thousands to the city each March. And if the crowd is any indication, that welcome isn’t going anywhere.