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Event

St. Patrick's Day on Beaver Island, 1978

Also 1978 St. Patrick's Day

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Date1978-03-17
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Date
1978-03-17
Kind
Celebration
Where
Holy Cross Parish Hall · Holy Cross Catholic Church building
Carried out by
Holy Cross Catholic Church · Beaver Island Civic Association
Followed by
St. Patrick's Day on Beaver Island, 1979
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
celebrationcommunityheritageirish-arranmore
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

The Beaver Beacon’s February 1978 issue announces, and its March 1978 issue reports the outcome of, a three-day St. Patrick’s holiday: a Mass and Pot-Luck Dinner at Holy Cross Church and Parish Hall, a hall dance, a children’s window-decorating contest among island businesses, and ferry-dock games and prizes for kids, with several youth and adult musical acts providing dinner and dance music.

Program

Mass at Holy Cross Church (5:00 p.m.) followed by a Pot-Luck Dinner (5:30) and a Dance (9:00 p.m.) at Holy Cross Parish Hall, both announced in advance. The outcome report adds: a children’s school holiday and window-decorating contest (1st prize: the Shamrock’s windows; 2nd: Mark and Archie’s Gift Shop; 3rd: McDonough’s Market); games and prizes for kids on the ferry dock on the 17th; the Pot-Luck Dinner at the Hall, with music from Terri Bussey and friends, a school music-class band, and later Don Hogan with two visiting guitarists for dancing.

Evidence limits

Bare roads forced cancellation of proposed sleigh rides; the source does not say what else, if anything, was cancelled. The February announcement notes the Civic Association had weekend entertainment planned without a “definite schedule” at press time, and no later issue confirms what the Civic Association ultimately staged. The April 1978 issue separately reports a list of native Islanders who attended the Chicago St. Patrick’s Party — a distinct event tracked in St. Patrick's Party for Holy Cross Church, Chicago, not this island program.

Open questions

  • What weekend entertainment, if any, did the Civic Association end up staging in 1978?
  • Which other announced events were cancelled beyond the sleigh rides?

See also

Sources

  1. "As per usual St. Patrick's Day is a legal Holiday on Beaver Island. This year a Mass will be held at 5:00 p.m. at Holy Cross Church with a Pot Luck Dinner following at 5:30 at Holy Cross Parish Hall. At 9:00 p.m. a Dance will be held at Holy Cross Parish Hall featuring live music and entertainment." Notes "The Beaver Island Civic Association has entertainment planned for the week-end but at press time we did not have a definite schedule of events." The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1978-02_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held eleven-page February issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the advance island St. Patrick’s Day notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1978-02_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Reports the outcome: "For many years this day has been declared an official holiday on the Island... the celebration takes place over a three day period. Even though conditions were such that some of the events had to be cancelled, there was enough going on that there was no time for dull moments." Kids had a school holiday and took part in a window-decorating contest (1st: the Shamrock; 2nd: Mark and Archie's Gift Shop; 3rd: McDonough's Market). On the 17th, games and prizes for kids were held on the ferry dock; bare roads cancelled proposed sleigh rides but the Pot-Luck Dinner at the Hall was well attended, with music by Terri Bussey and friends, a school-music-class band (Cindy Gillespie, Ann Welke, Ron Gregg, John McCafferty, Joe Timsak, Nick Hogan), and later Don Hogan with two visiting guitarists for dancing. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1978-03_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held nine-page March issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the St. Patrick’s Day outcome report.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1978-03_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “St. Patrick's Day on Beaver Island, 1978”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-st-patricks-day-1978/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, February 1978, "ST. PATRICK'S DAY - BEAVER ISLAND." (and 3 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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