Irish Descendants to Lead the Parade

Campbells, Clynes, McCormicks and McLoughlins of Ventura, whose ancestors hailed from Ireland, will take to the streets Saturday for Ventura’s ninth annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The theme of the parade--expected to draw 30,000 spectators--is “Out of Ireland, 1847-1997, From Famine to Festival.”

“We’re going to have a mass of people,” said Pat Clark Doerner, whose ancestors arrived in Ventura in 1868. “Everybody’s Irish on St. Paddy’s Day--whether by birth, adoption or inheritance.”

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. at San Buenaventura Mission and wend its way to the Elks Lodge on Ash Street. There will be floats, marching bands, drum and bugle corps, equestrians, dancers and a green pig.

A festival of Celtic culture will follow from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday in Mission Park.

Ventura County is full of farmers descended from the Irish, many having emigrated during Ireland’s great famine, according to Doerner. She said she has heard from 17 clans who descend from Irish pioneer families--and people are still calling in.

Doerner said the road from Ireland to Ventura followed a pattern. Immigrants would leave home, stop on the East Coast to make some money, then head west. After the 1880s, many of them began to come directly to California and Ventura.

By that time, railroads had also cut a path across the U.S. Passengers could get $24 tickets for passage from New York to California--$23 from New York to Kansas, and $1 the rest of the way.

The original Irish settlers quickly bought up the cheap land. Fields on the Oxnard Plain went for $13 an acre--land in Ojai for $3 to $5 an acre.

The descendants of the Irish pioneers of Ventura County will serve as the honored guests and collective grand marshal for the parade.