Photos: Boston celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with Southie parade

A throng of revelers lined the streets of South Boston on Sunday for the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, one of the nation’s largest celebrations of Irish heritage.

The parade drew crowds from across Massachusetts and beyond, with marching bands, floats, veterans’ groups and local organizations making their way through the neighborhood.

Police lined the route as Irish dancers, bagpipers and Revolutionary War reenactors marched past cheering spectators.

Students stood on rooftops while residents leaned over porch railings of South Boston’s triple-decker homes waving and cheering. Along the sidewalks, spectators wearing green beads, shamrock hats and Boston Celtics gear crowded behind barricades, some waving Irish flags as the parade passed.

Laura Delaney, a 64-year-old from South Boston, grew up on the parade route and remembers watching it pass her window during family parties.

She has since moved to Easton to have a yard for her dogs. But she still comes back for the parade ever year.

“Seeing family and old friends, the fun Irish atmosphere, seeing my best friend since six years old and hanging with her every year,” she said of the best part of coming back.

Delaney was a Boston police detective for years, so she also worked the other side of the parade in uniform.

“I prefer being on this side,” she said with a laugh. “I used to ask the boss to put me down … in front of my cousins house. I knew all the people there, but I’d still be in uniform.”

This year’s parade followed a reversed route through South Boston, part of planning by city officials to manage the large crowds expected for the annual celebration. Preparations took weeks, as police, transit officials and emergency crews coordinated safety and transportation plans for the large crowds that packed the neighborhood.

Bill Macone, a 70-year-old from Somerville, attended his first parade last year and loved it enough to come again.

In years past, he said the parade was always “a little too crazy” for him and his wife. But now they’re older and retired, so they can come enjoy — and hide out in a family storefront if they need a breather.

“The kids have so much fun. We set up our chairs and then we move back and let the kids get up front,” he said. “It's just a lot of good family fun.”

The event is a major annual tradition in Boston, a city with deep Irish roots, and often coincides with celebrations of Evacuation Day, which commemorates the departure of British troops from Boston in 1776. Evacuation Day this year falls on Tuesday.

With reporting from WBUR's Anna Rubenstein and Leah Willingham of The Associated Press