It was all Irish in Boeke Hall on Saturday night

Everyone and everything is Irish when you have a St. Patrick’s Day Party at St. Paul Parish. On Saturday night in Boeke Hall that included music, singing, dancing, food, drinks, laughter, a raffle and lots of conversation.

The evening opened with a performance by the Hoban Pipers Pride, a bagpipe corps that had to be Scots-Irish and certainly part-St. Paul. Two St. Paul lads, Matt Hogue and Chuck Buyers, are members of the Pride.

Next came the 10-piece Hibernian Ceili Band which was the second of three entertainment features of the evening. Closing out the evening was Pat Flynn and the Green Blossom Special.

Mabel Lechovich, shown here in the photo with party organizer Caryn Lintner, won the $307 in the 50/50 raffle and gave back half of it immediately to the parish. There were more than 40 raffle prizes donated by area business firms and parish friends. Donna Kunselman won four of the prizes. Winner of bottles of Irish whiskey were Dave Clute and Dave Nesline.

Irishman of the evening was Bernie Factor who donned his Irish duds for the party and was still celebrating at the Pancake breakfast after the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday. His 90th birthday was Sunday.. Bernie and Pat Flynn got together during an intermission to talk about old times. Flynn has been providing his blend of Irish music in the Akron area since 1970.

The Green Blossom Gang sang “Happy Birthday” to Bernie and the crowd of 260 all joined in.

The pastor, the Rev. Fr. Ralph W. Thomas, showed off his Irish dancing prowess. If you view the photo album you will see him and others dancing. Mary Lou Crowe, who is 82 years old and teaches line dancing, led several other ladies stepping to the Irish music.

Another Fr. Ralph at the party was the Rev. Fr. Ralph E. Wiatrowski, pastor of St. Barnabas Parish in Northfield.

Party organizer Caryn Lintner, who is organist at St. Paul and also works at St. Barnabas, claims both Fr. Ralphs as her bosses. Saturday night she put her Northfield boss to work at the mike, calling out names of raffle winners.

Most everyone was a winner Saturday night including the Parish itself. All profit from the party will go to the church and gym building debt fund.

Go the photo album

Listen to Green Blossom Special