Irish Eyes Smile In The Rain At 48th March Of South Side Irish Parade: Photo Highlights

CHICAGO—Last year it snowed, this year it rained, but it didn’t stop the thousands of people who came out to watch the the South Side Irish Parade marching down Western Avenue through Mt. Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park on Sunday.

Tunnel to Towers Foundation created in honor of fallen FDNY Firefighter Steven Siller who lost his life saving others on Sept. 11, 2001, was the 2026 Grand Marshal. The foundation provides mortgage-free and smart homes for catastrophically injured first responders, veterans and Gold Star families with young children.

Danny Golden, a Chicago police officer paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in 2022, is the recent recipient of a mortgage-free, smart home from the foundation.

Celebrating 100 years in the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood, St. Christina Parish was this year’s parade honoree. More than 80 percent of the children attending St. Christina’s grammar school are the sons and daughters of police and fire personnel.

Erin Larkin, a St. Christina School and Mother McAuley alumna, rode down Western Avenue, greeting her subjects gathered curbside as the 2026 South Side Irish Parade.

This year’s parade boasted five pipe bands, six area high school marching bands, and the 484th Army Band, plus Irish wolfhounds, Irish dancers, Chicago Police, AFFI and Cook County Sheriff Honor Guards, the Original Baby Buggy Parade Float from the first 1979 “Wee Folks of Washtnaw and Talman,” parade and the Marist RedHawl IHSA State Basketball Champions.

Plastic rain ponchos seemed to be the fashion choice of the day for the throngs gathered curbside.