Erin go blah? Shriners pull out of Savannah St. Pat's parade

SAVANNAH - There go the clowns -- and the go-carts, pirates, Keystone Cops and belly-dancing genies -- in a Shriner boycott of Savannah&#39;s St. Patrick&#39;s Day parade. <br> <br> The Shriners&#39; circus-like shenanigans have been a fixture in the nation&#39;s second-largest St. Pat&#39;s parade for more than 40 years. But the civic group has pulled out of the March 16 parade because organizers won&#39;t allow all of its two-thousand members to participate. <br> <br> Sure, there will still be marching bands and waving politicians. But for Savannahians who annually camp out along the cobblestone streets and stately squares, St. Pat&#39;s without Shriners is simply erin-go-blah. <br> <br> Chris Sergi watches the parade every year from her mother&#39;s storefront. <br> <br> She said, ``It will not be half as much fun without them. They make the parade. You see the county commissioners and they wave, but you keep waiting for the belly dancers to come.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In a parade with more than 300 floats, pipe bands, baton-twirling school groups and antique convertibles, the city&#39;s Shriner temple has been the largest single group represented. <br> <br> Some walk the route in clown makeup and oversized shoes. Others wave scimitars from a bus converted into a rolling pirate ship. Keystone Cops patrol the parade as others zigzag in miniature go-carts. Turban-clad genies shake their ruby-studded Buddha bellies to out-of-tune flutes. <br> <br> But the Shriners balked this year when parade organizers, who say the parade has gotten too long, asked the group to downsize its numbers. <br> <br> The Shriner&#39;s protest has caused something of a St. Pat&#39;s scandal in Savannah, where Irish immigrants staged the first St. Patrick&#39;s parade in 1824. It&#39;s a tradition that draws up to 500,000 visitors annually.