Mar 17, 2008 - 04:05:05 CDT
Karen McConnellClay Rogers
Karly Houghton (left), Brittney Berg and Morgan LeNieus, all of Killdeer, wear green hats and smiling eyes for the parade in Dunn County Saturday. They were part of the Dunn County Centennial Children's Choir.
A group of Dickinson State University students spent Saturday in Dunn Center, enjoying the town's annual St. Patrick's Day celebration and the annual meal of corned beef and cabbage.
Irish wannabes go green in Dunn Center
Town's Irishwoman inspires annual celebration
DUNN CENTER - Today, everyone is Irish but the St. Patrick's Day celebration started a hair early in Dunn Center.
The small town hosted its annual parade and corned beef supper Saturday afternoon. Its one block of Main Street was lined with at least 300 people, many lads and lassies, smiling, waving and catching candy from the few but enthusiastic paraders who gamely paraded around the block twice to make the silly green fun last a little longer.
This was the ninth year the town hosted St. Pat's fun and it's all because of one of the county's undaunted Irishwomen.
Karen McConnell lives in Dunn Center and grew up in nearby Werner, pretty much a ghost town now.
McConnell, with red hair and a green banner across her chest, said she was inspired by the great St. Pat's celebration in Butte, Mont., and thought afterward, "We can do this."
So, counting on the luck of the Irish, she got started the next year. Now in its ninth year, it's become a grand tradition embedded in the town's calendar.
McConnell, who was a McMann and whose family names include McAdoo and MacDonald, figures the true Irish lineage in the county probably only involves "me, my sister and my brother."
She said she was "thrilled and pleased" by the number of people who joined Dunn Center and Dunn County folks for the day.
"There's a lot of wannabe-Irish," she said.
Clay Rogers, a Dickinson State University student originally from Gillette, Wyo., was among a couple dozen students who packed into five cars for the event.
The grandmother of one of their friends owns the Ilo Bar, and Rogers said the gang of friends was looking forward to the home-cooked Irish supper, complete with Irish soda bread, that was served at 5:30 p.m. A pitcher or two of the obligatory green beer made the rounds, too.
McConnell said the townspeople cooked 75 pounds of corned beef, a case of cabbage, 25 pounds of carrots, 50 pounds of potatoes, and 20 pounds of onions, and she feared "We're going to run out."
Just about everyone in town wore green clothing, put on funny plastic green hats and beads and had a grand old time.
McConnell said she's already looking forward to next year, the 10th annual Dunn Center St. Pat's Day party.
"We'll start planning now," she said.
(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)
IRISH and proud of it wrote on Mar 17, 2008 2:17 PM:
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