Hilton Head St. Patrick’s Day parade back for first time since founder’s death
After the death of its founder and the cancellation of last year’s event because of inclement weather, the Hilton Head Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade is back on March 15.
The parade, founded in 1983 by Thomas Reilley, is the oldest in South Carolina. A sea of people wearing green floods Pope Avenue once a year, as religious groups, police and fire departments, marching bands, animals and local dignitaries march to the delight of the crowd. The parade typically draws in about 25,000 spectators, according to its website; this year’s event is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.
It’s the first year of the St. Patrick’s Day parade since the death of its founder. Reilley, the iconic Hilton Head restauranteur behind Coastal Restaurants and Bars, passed away at 78 on May 2, 2025 after months of severe health problems.
For Reilley, the parade was a big party, his son Thomas said. He had already put in his time with the stresses of day-to-day management, so the parade was a time to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
“It was a day for him to just be his jovial self,” Thomas Reilley Jr. said. “He really soaked it up. He was really proud his name was mentioned for founding it. He enjoyed the attention, honestly.”
Born in Providence, Rhode Island to an Irish father and Italian mother, Reilley grew up as the oldest of eight siblings in a family where life revolved around kitchen table stories. He moved to Hilton Head with his future wife Diane in February 1977, and they opened the original Reilley’s Grill and Bar in 1982.
Today the company he founded has several restaurants, including Benny’s Coastal Kitchen, Carolina Crab Company and Fishcamp on Broad Creek. The Reilleys have seven children.
A love of bagpipes
Over the years, the Hilton Head parade has seen marching bands, tractors, pirate ships, horse-drawn carriages, antique cars, cheerleading squads and bagpipers.
Reilley loved the bagpipes in particular, his son said. One year, a group of bagpipers came from Boston, and he basically followed them around the whole time, Reilley Jr. said.
“My dad gets teary-eyed around bagpipe music,” he said. “Knowing when the bagpipers would be at Reilley’s every year, we would all migrate there. My dad would sit there all teary-eyed. He was cliche Irish.”
The first parade without his father is more of a celebration of his life than a somber event, Reilley Jr. said.
“Things like this that he was a part of starting, it doesn’t feel like a chance to be sad, rather it’s an opportunity to remember all the great things he did and enjoy his legacy, and opposed to mourning it,” he said.
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 2:14 PM.