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Event

St. Patrick's Day on Beaver Island, 1987

Also 1987 St. Pat's weekend celebration

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Dates1987-03-13 – 1987-03-17
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Dates
1987-03-13 – 1987-03-17
Kind
Celebration
Where
The Shamrock · Holy Cross Parish Hall
Followed by
St. Patrick's Day on Beaver Island, 1989
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
celebrationcommunityheritageirish-arranmore
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

The Beaver Beacon’s March 1987 calendar lists a multi-day weekend program — music at the Shamrock on Friday the 13th, a “Holy Cross St. Pat’s Day celebration” on Saturday the 14th, and a St. Patrick’s Day bingo on Tuesday the 17th — and its April 1987 column recaps a “quiet” weekend that still included a school children’s Irish dance program.

Program

Calendar items only: Shamrock music (Friday), a Holy Cross celebration (Saturday), and bingo (the 17th). The April recap adds one further detail not in the calendar: a school children’s St. Pat’s program that included Irish dancing.

Evidence limits

Both sources are brief — a calendar grid and a short editorial recap — with no attendance figures, proceeds, or named organizers. The calendar’s “Holy Cross” label is treated here as the parish hall by the same convention used in adjacent years, but the source itself supplies no fuller venue name. Neither source mentions the Chicago, Lansing, or Grand Rapids diaspora parties for this year.

Open questions

  • Who organized the school children’s Irish dance program, and was it tied to the Holy Cross celebration or a separate school event?
  • Was 1987’s “quiet” weekend, by the Beacon’s own characterization, a smaller program than the parade-and-games format that appears from 1989 onward?

See also

Sources

  1. The printed calendar grid marks Friday the 13th "The Shamrock celebrates St. Patrick's Day Music!!!!", Saturday the 14th "Holy Cross St. Pat's Day celebration", and Tuesday the 17th "St. Patrick's Day ***** Bingo". No further program detail is given beyond these calendar labels. 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 · 1987-03_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held fifteen-page March issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the St. Patrick’s Day calendar notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1987-03_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Recaps: "Is it just our imagination or did it seem like a pretty quiet St. Patrick's weekend celebration? ... The school kids did a great job on their St. Pat's program. It sure was fun watching all the Irish dancing!" No attendance, proceeds, or organizer detail is given. 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 · 1987-04_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held sixteen-page April 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 · 1987-04_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “St. Patrick's Day on Beaver Island, 1987”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-st-patricks-day-1987/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, March 1987, calendar page. (and 3 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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