The 2019 South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast featured a new venue, a new host, and an array of references to the unfolding 2020 presidential campaign — some serious, some less so.
It was the 118th iteration of the event, which took place at the Flynn Cruiseport on South Boston’s waterfront after several years at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The host, State Sen. Nick Collins, succeeded former Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, who became the first woman and person of color to host the breakfast in 2014 and left Beacon Hill for a private-sector job last year.
In the run-up to the breakfast, there were rumors that Joe Biden, the former vice president and potential Democratic presidential candidate, would make an in-person appearance. Instead, Biden recorded a video in which he extolled the virtues of the Irish and made what may have been a veiled reference to a presidential run.
“I would say we’re the only people on earth who are always nostalgic for the future," Biden said. “I think the future’s going to be bright."
Later, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh took a good-natured jibe at both Biden and a Massachusetts congressman who was in attendance, saying he's not yet ready to back a Democratic presidential candidate.
"I have an old friend that hasn't announced yet, and I just want to wait and see to see the full field," Walsh said. "People say that my friend potentially is too old, too moderate, talks too much. But I think Stephen Lynch deserves a chance."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who’s been an official presidential candidate since February, wasn’t at the event, having kicked off a three-day southern campaign swing in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday. Her candidacy was referenced several times, however. Collins called her “one of the 732 Democrats running for president.” Ed Markey, Warren’s colleague in the U.S. Senate, gave her campaign a plug. And Gov. Charlie Baker quipped that he took a DNA test which reveals he’s 1/1000th Republican — an obvious dig at Warren’s much-discussed decision to use genetic testing to confirm her own claims of Native American ancestry, as well as his own frequent deviations from national Republican orthodoxy.
Warren had been a regular at the breakfast since joining the Senate in 2013, but unlike Biden, she didn’t address the gathering in absentia this year. Her absence was noted by Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty, who said Warren had asked him to convey a “sincere Irish blessing” to the crowd — and then directed the audience’s attention to a (nonexistent) shamrock smoke signal.
Also not attending: House Speaker Bob DeLeo; Attorney General Maura Healey; and Rep. Seth Moulton, whose own interest in a presidential bid went unmentioned.
The 2020 campaign wasn’t the only topic on people’s minds at the breakfast. Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell jibed at Walsh by describing an allegedly tough drive to the event that featured instances in which Walsh’s vision for the city has fallen short.
"Let me read you my directions courtesy of Google Maps," Campbell said. "First, take a right at the Olympic Stadium in Widett Circle — just make sure you don't confuse it with the MLS soccer stadium on Frontage Road. Then continue down the road until you reach GE's shiny new headquarters — and if you get to Amazon's HQ2 you've gone way too far, way too far. So you gotta turn around, drive back —go by the Seaport's IndyCar track about a quarter mile, and voila! You're here!"
There were also occasional serious moments at the event, including comments linking the immigration that built South Boston to the charged immigration debate today and a moment of silence for the victims of the recent mosque attacks in New Zealand.
