Meet Hawai'i's Irish O'Hana
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
For a few hours in Waikiki yesterday, there were only two kinds of people: those who were Irish and those who wished they were.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Joe O'Reilly was the real thing.
Joe Wuscher portrayed St. Patrick in yesterday's parade in Waikiki. He's a full-blooded Austrian and considered the chance to portray the Irish saint "an honor — that's for sure."
It wasn't just his green outfit and "Celtic to the core" T-shirt, though. It was 40 years of celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Hawai'i with family and friends.
"It's all about trying to keep the family involved," O'Reilly said as his wife, Kitty, daubed sunscreen on his fair Irish complexion and the couple headed off to see the annual holiday parade and have lunch at an Irish pub.
Other family festivities this week included a corned-beef and cabbage dinner, a concert by an Irish flutist and watching a Riverdance video, said O'Reilly, a recently retired University of Hawai'i professor.
If you weren't Irish, that was OK, too. Just ask St. Patrick himself.
"It's an honor — that's for sure," said Joe ("call me O'Neill") Wuscher, a full-blooded Austrian who marched in the parade as the Irish saint, earning the job after years of helping his wife, Mary O'Neill, and the sponsoring group, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.
Some people wore just a touch of green — socks, shoelaces, hats. Others, like Judith Parrot, went all out.
"I like to make people smile and it keeps you young," said Parrott, who wore a green sweater, green pants, a green wig, green earrings and rose-colored shamrock sunglasses that hid green eyelashes. Parrott said she had some Irish "on my mother's side."
Elsie Kwok, who was attending her first St. Patrick's Day parade after retiring as a hair salon owner, admitted she doesn't have any Irish blood at all. But, she said, green is her favorite color and "this is where the excitement is today, so that's why I'm here."
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Leilani Santos, who as reigning Ms. Hawai'i USA is a veteran of dozens of Hawai'i parades, said yesterday's was among the best. What's the difference from, say, a Christmas or Fourth of July parade?
Irish or otherwise, Pat Brazo's eyes were smiling under those shades. She's from Ithaca, N.Y.
"Well, a lot more people are slightly intoxicated already," Santos said. "Everybody's a little looser, more peppy, more relaxed."
After the parade, the crowd melted away in two directions.
The old-timers went off to the Elks Club, which opened its doors to all comers and served up Irish food and piano tunes.
"In the old days, everybody wore suits, derbies and gloves in the parade, then went off to the Emerald Ball," said Jack Sullivan, who marched in Hawai'i's first St. Patrick's Day parade 35 years ago and rode an electric cart yesterday dressed as a leprechaun.
At the other end of Waikiki, a decidedly more raucous group gathered at several Irish pubs on Lewers Street.
At Kelly O'Neil's Pub, the bar crowd — sporting Guinness beer, Jameson's whiskey and Seagram's Ginger Ale baseball caps — was sometimes three deep as a six-piece Irish band played for those who wanted to dance or just clap along.
Meanwhile at a quiet table in the back, Seary Figueroa Seary and four of her students from Japan studying at the private Institute of Intensive English were getting a first-time lesson in one of Hawai'i's biggest ethnic celebrations.
"I just brought my afternoon class out and told them all to wear green," Seary said, as the students ate corned-beef sandwiches and discussed the bagpipe music they heard during the parade.
"I'm sure the green beer will stick in their minds for a long time, too," Seary said.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
