A few pictures from today's Northwest Side Irish Parade

The kids along Northwest Highway paid rapt attention to today's Northwest Side Irish Parade; you never could tell when another double-decker bus might roll by with people tossing candy from the windows.




But there's more to St. Patrick's Day Parades than candy and double-decker buses: With only nine days left until the primary election, there were a lot of judicial candidates out trolling for votes, too.

I'd borrowed my wife's camera, arriving at the Norwood Park train station just after today's parade began. I was still trying to figure out how to take the camera out of "indoor" mode when the group for Justice Theis went by, and then Justice Pucinski. I was making some progress with the settings when Judge McGing came through with Sen. Mulroe's group -- Judge McGing being a candidate for the Appellate Court (Cahill vacancy) -- but not yet enough to take a picture.

I did manage to figure out which end of the camera to point at the street by the time this bus came rolling by, touting Elizabeth Hayes' judicial bid (she's a candidate for the countywide Ward vacancy). Some of her supporters walked along with.

A JROTC group from Prosser High School got between the judicial candidates. (I couldn't get any pictures of a later group, from Foreman, because the camera in my wife's camera ran out of steam.)


And what would an Irish parade be without Irish dancers. A huge contingent from Trinity participated. Because of my camera battery, I couldn't get the later groups from Mullane or Dillon-Gavin.

I got only this one shot of the group from the O'Hare School.
I couldn't get the St. Pat's jazz band float or the group that marched with the school entry. And I couldn't get a picture of Notre Dame College Prep Football Coach and Athletic Director Mike Hennessey (he was shepherding a group of students marching and moving too quickly for my photographic skills), but Coach Hennessey is to be congratulated on his forthcoming induction into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, I did get a couple of pictures of the Notre Dame-Resurrection Marching Band.

But back to the politics of the moment. Gerald V. Cleary, a candidate for the countywide O'Brien, Jr. vacancy, was represented.
There was a small contingent of supporters for Judge Kay Hanlon's bid for the Cahill vacancy on the Appellate Court.
And there was a group boosting Judge Marguerite Quinn's bid for the Gallagher vacancy on the Appellate Court.
Maureen Murphy (11th Subcircuit, O'Brien vacancy) also had a group in the parade.






























But let's end this photo essay with kids and dogs and guys with green hair.




The weather today was truly glorious. Next year we'll probably have the wearin' o' the green... parkas.