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On Tuesday, March 15, a U.S. District Court judge restored the 2016 parade’s original, longer route, allowing it to end in Andrew Square. South Boston’s Allied War Veterans Council held a final meeting Tuesday evening to assure maximum parade safety. The following morning, the USS McFaul (DDG-74), a guided missile cruiser with GE engines, docked; her crew will march in the parade. By RICK WINTERSON It has been quite a parade week so far. South Boston’s Allied War Veterans Council (by a 9-0 Supreme Court edict in 1994) owns the privilege and responsibility of presenting the annual St. Patrick’s/Evacuation Day Parade in South Boston. But after the council submitted its 2016 parade permit request in April of last year, City Hall’s licensing bureaucracy sat on the [...]

By RICK WINTERSON Each year, South Boston’s Allied War Veterans Council, as an integral part of the St. Patrick’s/Evacuation Day Parade, selects a worthy person to become its parade chief marshal. You might well ask what goes into the selection of the chief marshal each year. South Boston Online would like to answer that question by describing the 2016 Parade Chief Marshal – William J. “Bill” Thomas, who was born in South Boston and now lives on the edge of the Savin Hill neighborhood in Dorchester. One significant characteristic of the parade chief marshal is his or her concern for veterans. Well, Bill is an excellent example of such concern. In 1975, he joined the American Legion’s Kane Post No. 60 on Meetinghouse Hill after [...]

By RICK WINTERSON You perhaps have passed by the recently opened office of the South Boston-Seaport Catholic Collaborative, located at 307 West Broadway near the intersection with D Street. The Catholic Collaborative is a new concept – less than a year old – to handle the Catholic Church’s mission of ministry and governance. This article reports on an interview about the Catholic Collaborative with its new pastor, Fr. Steve Madden. Fr. Steve, as he prefers to be called, is local. He was born in Somerville; the Madden family lived in St. Joseph Parish close to the town line with Cambridge.  He’s the second oldest of five sons: Dan, Fr. Steve, Paul, Michael and Sean. His mother, now deceased, was named Catherine, and his father Daniel [...]