By Mike Houlihan

January 16^th,2026

I got a New Year’s Eve phone call the other night from a copper pal of mine.

He had been watching TV and the upcoming hype for Chicago’s New Year’s Eve celebration being put on by our moron Mayor. Turns out the host of this extravaganza is this guy CHANCE THE RAPPER.

According to my police informant, this guy took a swipe at our Irish American heritage by making a crack about us “dying the river green for St. Patrick’s Day, but we’re gonna do something a little ‘classier’.”

So Chance the rapper sez we’re not classy! Since the Irish race is being trashed by this bum, I’m calling him out for this blatant anti-Irish racist slur.

Lord knows we would never get away with dissing “Kwanza” or whatever the hell they call it.

But who can forget Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s infamous Columbus Statue Rant March 3, 2022, when she bragged about her Johnson…but it wasn’t Brandon!

Mayor Lori’s remarks made for a great Southside Irish Parade banter when she showed up for the parade that year wearing a kilt, triggering plenty of witty repartee among the South Side Irish, who found her less than classy!

Years ago I had a similar encounter with the legendary crooner Lou Rawls that could have backfired. Lou was performing in Chicago and I invited him to host our Martin Luther King Day celebration at the State of Illinois Center where I was Special Events Director.

I had hundreds of inner-city high schoolers bussed in from Dunbar, Marshall, and Tilden and we had a huge choir onstage to perform. When Lou Rawls showed up he told me he had a sore throat and would not be singing that day.  I said, “Are you nuts? These kids will go batshit if you don’t sing!”

He looked at me and smiled. I asked, “What are you gonna do?” Lou told me, “Whatever floats your boat.”

When he took the stage, he told the kids he was under the weather, but asked them to join him as he went acapella with “God didn’t make the little green apples, and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime…” He wasn’t exactly singing, but it was PURE Lou Rawls, a magic moment I will never forget.  The. kids were thrilled, joined in, and I felt the hand of the Divine in that very moment. Some call that an “Epiphany”

And as I wrote this on the Feast of Epiphany, I remember.

Now I suppose there are several bombs I could throw at this Chance the Rapper, for being an insensitive lout about our ethnic feast day coming up in March, St. Patrick’s Day. But what if I could engineer an epiphany for Chance just by inviting him to share Paddy’s Day with the rest of Chicago, where he was born.

I did some research and learned that his real name is Chancelor Johnathan Bennett. He’s 32, grew up in Chatham on the south side. His father worked for Mayor Harold Washington and then Obama. Chance had some clout it seems.  And then I listened to some of his music, and guess what, the kid can sing…just like Lou Rawls. Chance’s bio tells how he placed second in a local songwriting contest and “then met Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who enjoyed his music.”

In 2014 Chance was presented Chicago’s “Outstandting Youth of the Year Award”, by Mayor Rahm Emanuel! This brother knows how to work his clout!

So Chance, let me school you a bit about St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago. We Irish find it very classy. Paddy’s Day is officially celebrated on March 17^th but here in Chicago it starts in January.  This year it started on Sunday January 11^th at Plumber’s Hall when we pick the Queen of the 2026 St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

This ain’t no beauty contest Chance, it’s usually more than a hundred polished, sophisticated, young Irish women vying for the opportunity to represent their Irish community for the next year.

Once the Queen is crowned we celebrate with the Plumbers Local 130 once again at the Annual Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner on Thursday January 29^that Plumber’s Hall.

This triggers a wide variety of Paddy’s Day activities of parties, music, and dance celebrations leading up to the Chicago St.Patrick’s day Parade on Saturday March 14^th downtown, including St Patrick’s Day Irish Village Market, which takes place on Michigan Avenue, on the day of the Dyeing of the River and the parade.

Next day the Southside Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade kicks off on Western Avenue on Sunday March 15^th., which just happens to be the birthday of my twin sons Bill and Paddy Houlihan, hosts of the radio program “The Houli’s Hooley”, every week on GLOBAL IRISH RADIO, GIR.ie

In addition to these festivities there are at least a dozen other St. Patrick’s Day parades in March, including the Archer Avenue Working Families parade founded by my pal Jim Sweeney of Local 150.

Please join us in this celebration Chance, you just might have your own Epiphany regarding Irish pride and learn a valuable lesson: “If you want to dish the Irish, we will fight back!”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Chancelor.

Spent last Sunday at Plumbers Hall witnessing the St. Patrick’s Day parade Queen contest and crowning of Miss Claire Cahill as our lovely 2026 Queen.

Texted Kass with this news and he replied, “Is she Italian?”  No, she’s not and who can forget that tawdry episode when Kass outed Mayor Rich Daley for questioning 1998 Queen Jennifer Bastioni’s heritage. By the way Kasso, Jennifer’s mother was an Irish cop and your name still lives in infamy at Plumbers Hall!

To the rest of youse, HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!

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Known around town as “Houli,” he is former features columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, Irish American News and currently Chicago correspondent for The Irish Echo. He began his career in 1973 as an apprentice with The American Shakespeare Festival, appearing in the classics there and in regional productions across the nation as well as Off-Broadway, on Broadway, on TV and in major motion pictures. He is a playwright and author of anthologies “Hooliganism Stories” and “More Hooliganism Stories” and the gonzo Mayoral campaign journal “Nothin’s on The Square”. Founder of the Annual Irish American Movie Hooley film festival each Fall at The Wilmette Theatre. He was honored as 2020/2021 “Irishman of the Year” by the Emerald Society, the Irish American Police Association. His Hibernian Radio Hour podcast can be found at hibernianradio.org and streaming worldwide on Sat. nights from 7-8PM on Global Irish Radio, GIR.ie.

His latest book ” Chicago Irish Mythology” is available on Amazon and wherever else you buy your books.

https://abbeyfealepress.com/

Even more info about Houli is available here, on his latest adventures: hibernianmedia.org