When Irish eyes are absent: Virus subdues St. Patrick's Day
Alanna Durkin Richer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 8 months AGO
Sinn Fein Society members Bill Bradley, left, and John Lowenthal, right, walk the sidewalk of the St. Patrick's Day parade route in downtown Savannah, Ga., Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Last week, Savannah's mayor announced the city's 196-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade was called off due to coronavirus concerns. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
A woman runs past a bouquet of green carnations and daisies outside a floristshop on a nearly empty sidewalk on Broadway on St. Patrick's Day in the South Boston neighborhood of Boston, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A woman holding an Irish themed flag is driven by St. Patrick's Cathedral after the annual parade was cancelled due to coronavirus concerns, Tuesday, March 17, 2020, in New York. New York state entered a new phase in the coronavirus pandemic Monday, as New York City closed its public schools, and officials said schools statewide would close by Wednesday. New York joined with Connecticut and New Jersey to close bars, restaurants and movie theaters along with setting limits on social gatherings. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Tourists cover their faces in Dublin city centre, Tuesday March 17, 2020. The St Patrick's Day parades across Ireland were cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19 virus. For most people, the new COVID-19 coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, but for some it can cause more severe illness. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Tim Finnerty, the Grand Marshall of this year's St. Patrick's Day parade, leads congregants out of the Feast of St. Patrick Mass at Old Saint Patrick's Church in the Strip District in Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 14, 2020. "I'd rather be known as the grand marshall of the parade that was canceled rather than the grand marshal that maybe spread the coronavirus," Finnerty said. The parade was cancelled by the city due to COVID-19 precautions. (Steph Chambers/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
A man dressed as St Patrick walks past a closed Temple bar in Dublin city centre, Monday, March, 16, 2020. All pubs in the Republic of Ireland closed late Sunday to try and tackle the spread of Covid-19. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
A woman wears a face mask in a restaurant in Dublin city centre, Tuesday March 17, 2020. The St Patrick's Day parades across Ireland were cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19 virus. For most people, the new COVID-19 coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, but for some it can cause more severe illness.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
A woman pushes a stroller past a liquor store on a nearly empty sidewalk on Broadway on St. Patrick's Day in the South Boston neighborhood of Boston, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Two women walk with bags of groceries down a nearly empty Broadway on St. Patrick's Day in the South Boston neighborhood of Boston, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks by St. Patrick's Cathedral after the annual St. Patrick's Day parade was cancelled due to coronavirus concerns, Tuesday, March 17, 2020, in New York. New York state entered a new phase in the coronavirus pandemic Monday, as New York City closed its public schools, and officials said schools statewide would close by Wednesday. New York joined with Connecticut and New Jersey to close bars, restaurants and movie theaters along with setting limits on social gatherings. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks by St. Patrick's Cathedral after the annual St. Patrick's Day parade was cancelled due to coronavirus concerns, Tuesday, March 17, 2020, in New York. New York state entered a new phase in the coronavirus pandemic Monday, as New York City closed its public schools, and officials said schools statewide would close by Wednesday. New York joined with Connecticut and New Jersey to close bars, restaurants and movie theaters along with setting limits on social gatherings. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Sinn Fein Society members Bill Bradley, center, and John Lowenthal, right, walk the St. Patrick's Day parade route in downtown Savannah, Ga, Tuesday, March, 17, 2020. Last week Savannah's mayor announced the city's 196-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade was called off due to coronavirus concerns. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
A group of servers from a local hamburger restaurant gather to look at a cell phone photo of themselves in St. Patrick's Day attire, Tuesday, March, 17, 2020, in Savannah, Ga. Last week Savannah's mayor called off the city's 196-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade, but left bars and restaurants open for business. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
A St. Patrick's day photo opportunity novelty stands empty at an Irish pub along the normally busy Nicollet Mall Tuesday, March 17, 2020 in Minneapolis. Dine-in restaurants and bars are being temporarily shut down and only providing take-out service in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. St. Patrick's Day parades in Minneapolis and St. Paul were cancelled. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
A family dressed in St. Patrick's Day attire walks past a window with a message for tourist, Tuesday, March, 17, 2020, in downtown Savannah, Ga. Due to concerns about coronavirus Savannah's mayor called off the city's 196-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
Kelly Seega of Massachusetts looks up to the twin spires of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Tuesday, Mar., 17, 2020, in Savannah, Ga. The cathedral was closed to the public on an otherwise a very festive celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Last week, due to concerns about coronavirus, Savannah's mayor called off the city's 196-year-old parade. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
BOSTON (AP) — St. Patrick's Day revelers across the world tried to salvage the holiday with makeshift celebrations after parades and parties were scrapped and residents were urged to hunker down at home to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
It was the first St. Patrick's Day in more than 250 years without a large parade in New York City, but a small group of organizers marched the rain-soaked streets early Tuesday anyway — observing "social distancing," they said — to keep the tradition alive.
Led by police cars with flashing lights, people in uniforms and sashes marched up Fifth Avenue before dawn with a banner and flags as bagpipe music played. The brief march wasn't advertised, and the sidewalks were largely empty.
In Savannah, Georgia, which canceled its hugely popular parade for the first time in 99 years, there were no bagpipers, no cheering crowds — just two men in green blazers carrying a large Irish flag as they trudged along largely abandoned sidewalks.
“It's really strange,” said Bill Bradley, carrying the flag on its long wooden pole. “It's almost like a dream, like living in some kind of nightmare.” Bradley and his friend John Lowenthal, members of one of Savannah's Irish social societies, opted to walk the parade route on their own.
There were virtually no signs of revelry in a Chicago, which scrapped the nearly 60-year-old tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green in order to keep crowds away.
One or more diehards tried to turn at least part of the river green anyway. A portion of the river was turned green by someone, but it's not clear what substance was used, WTTW-TV reported.
After having to postpone shows in Boston, American Celtic punk band The Dropkick Murphys hoped to spread Irish cheer to those holed up in their homes with a concert that will be livestreamed Tuesday night on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
“We’re gonna play it like there are people in front of us, at level 10,” singer and bassist Ken Casey of the band, known for its popular song “I'm Shipping Up To Boston," told WBUR.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz had ordered bars to close at 5 p.m. Tuesday and asked people to resist going out for one last blowout.
Dooley's Pub, near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, urged residents on social media to “stop on in for some corned beef and cabbage!” and pledged to keep pouring green beer until 5 p.m. The bar said it wanted to "allow our employees a chance to earn as much as they can before the shutdown pushes them into an untenable economic situation.”
Neighbors in some communities organized “Shamrock Scavenger Hunts” on social media to give kids whose schools are shuttered something fun to do. Residents were told to hang a shamrock in their window so kids could go around the neighborhood and spot the shamrocks while keeping a safe distance from one another.
For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.
Parades were canceled across the globe. Bars and restaurants that would typically be filled with partiers on St. Patrick's Day were closed to all but takeout and delivery in places like New York and Massachusetts.
Irish authorities called off Dublin’s parade, which usually draws half a million revelers, and pleaded with people not to congregate at house parties.
The country's national broadcaster, RTE, urged people to post footage of their improvised, isolated celebrations on social media. The hashtag #RTEVirtualParade soon became a riot of flag-waving family processions, pets in green, white and orange tricolors and children performing Irish dancing.
In the U.K., London’s festival in Trafalgar Square was called off, and the government urged Britons not to visit bars and restaurants but did not formally shut them down.
Still, landmarks around the world, including Sydney Opera House, the London Eye and The Colosseum in Rome, were lit up in green as part of Tourism Ireland’s “Global Greening” project.
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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Peter Morrison in Dublin, Karen Matthews in New York City, Philip Marcelo in Boston, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.