--Sit on it Kennedy. We love you Louise.

--Cheers to all who wish us well--all the rest can go to hell.   --selected pickets and apartment window placards.

The parade itself, maneuvering a circuitous route through Southie's narrow and deteriorating streets, was a curious rag-tag affair composed mainly of badly coordinated local groups, political and patriotic floats, and the ever-present military contingent. Louise Day Hicks, the anti-busing Boston city councillor, led a float with signs declaring: "Hicks says South Boston is MY Roots," and "Southie is worth fighting for." Her group, ironically identifying itself as South Boston's Marshall's Youth Activities, was followed by a sound truck blurting the locally popular tune "Southie, My Home Town." Boston Mayor Kevin White did not march, but Gov. Michael Dukakis did, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 never showed despite his announced intention to participate. He is probably lucky he stayed away--bars, shop windows and lapels bore little good will for the man whose family name is uttered with reverence by most Irish-Americans outside the Boston area.

The parade stepped off at 1 p.m. from Andrews Square, heading up Dorchester Street toward South Boston High School. As the parade-leading South Boston chapter of the VFW passed by, people left their favorite watering holes and dashed onto the street in time to cheer on units from the marines, navy and army.

Among the first in a string of 26 marching bands was one more familiar with the endzone of Soldiers' Field than the streets of South Boston. Harvard's band, with only about 20 members marching, drummed up old Irish favorites like "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard."

As the parade drew to a close, Southie residents returned to the bars and open houses that offered free food, and the camaraderie of neighbors. Outwardly, at least, the people of South Boston seemed happy and contented. Where Were the Fighting Irish?

Dorchester Street and Broadway Street in Southie were paved with green yesterday but the only thing green at the St. Patrick's Eve Boxing Show

Wednesday night were the fighters.

Traditionally held in Boston Garden, the show usually features a fight between the best boxer from South Boston and a pugilist from some other ethnic background. But this year's locale was the Boston Arena--a building so decrepit that its rats should strike for better living conditions--and the feature fight matched two black men: "Marvelous Marvin Hagler," The North American Middleweight Champion, and Guyana's Reggie Ford, the 1972 Pan-American Games champion.

Sam Silverman, the show's promoter, blames the lack of good Irish fighters for this year's break from tradition. Without Irish boxers, the event can hardly hope to fill the Arena, much less the Garden. The people from South Boston simply don't come out to the fights if they can't cheer on the gutsy kid from L Street.

Southie's only representative was Kevin Dorian, who entered the ring wearing a robe with "Sinn Fein, South Boston," emblazoned on the back. But Dorian's "fighting Irish" background did not surface during the fight.

"These guys did more dancing and hugging than Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers," one fight fan said. The crowd only cheered once, when the beginning of the last round was announced at the evening's close.

The crowd wanted aggressive boxing more than it wanted an Irish name on the card. Even Dorian's meager victory was greeted with scattered booing. Imagine, booing an Irishman on St. Patrick's Eve!