It was mid-morning Saturday at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Laurel Street, and Patrick McMahon was ready.
The retired pilot from Coronado was dressed in a tartan kilt in the pattern of County Clare, Ireland, where his ancestors are from. He also wore a traditional leather-banded glengarry bonnet atop his head and a sporran, or Gaelic purse, hanging across his chest.
His wife, Julie, at his side, McMahon was also fortified by two pints of Guinness stout.
“My dad was Irish but my mom was German, so I guess I’m only half Irish,” McMahon said at the start of the 44th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival in Bankers Hill on Saturday.
“We just love the parade and we live locally, and we love Guinness,” he said. “We visited Ireland together about eight years ago, so this is like revisiting,” said Julie McMahon, who wore a kilt in her own family’s colors.
Maureen Knox, 63, hands out gelatin shots during the 44th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Thousands of people lined the neighborhood west of Balboa Park, arriving early amid a challenging hunt for parking.
They lined up five and 10 people deep for block upon block, as politicians rose by in vintage cars waving to the crowd and first responders from numerous police and fire agencies were loudly cheered.
Irish dance troupes jumped and twisted every few hundred feet while bands armed with drums and bagpipes played plied their trade.
Groups of Irish setters and their owners ambled up Fifth Avenue, along with a cavalcade of classic cars, vintage fire trucks and a Depression-era San Diego police paddy wagon. The Pugs on Parade and Ms. America 2026 Andrea Roberts followed behind.
A pug participates in the 44th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Young members of the Doherty Petri School of Irish Dancing perform. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Brad Prestik pop and lock dances next to his vehicle during the 44th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival in San Diego on Saturday. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
A man dressed in a wooden barrel participates in the parade. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
People watch the 44th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival in San Diego on Saturday, March 14. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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A pug participates in the 44th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“We volunteered here a long time ago, during a torrential rain,” said Liz Duffy DeJesus, who was farther down Fifth Avenue with her daughter, Kelsey. “We just stuck it out.”
DeJesus said she was a San Diego native whose parents brought her to the parade a generation ago.
“I love the camaraderie,” Kelsey DeJesus said. “It’s fun to see everyone else come out in green.”
The annual tradition is hosted by the Irish Congress of Southern California, a San Diego nonprofit dedicated to promoting public appreciation and knowledge of Irish culture and heritage.
Members of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick stopped and sang for Dick Wade, who died last year at 92. Wade was a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.(Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In addition to the parade, the event featured a daylong festival of music, arts and crafts and, of course, Irish ale and stout.
Herb Herbert of Fletcher Hills had a shamrock ballcap on his head and a cup of Harp lager in his hand as he watched the parade finish up along Sixth Avenue, on the west side of Balboa Park. His friend Kim Johnson hoisted a Guinness.
“We have turned this into one of our holidays because our spouses are on the other side of this fence,” said Johnson, whose husband is a member of the Friendly Sons singing group that was part of the parade. “It’s Kim and Herb Day.”