South Boston

Every year, the sidewalks of Broadway are lined with spectators for the annual St. Patrick’s Day [1] parade, the annual outpouring of pride in this heavily Irish enclave. Set apart on a peninsula, South Boston—or “Southie” as it’s called by residents—has always been a tight-knit, insulated community that has kept to a code of family and neighborhood alliances.

Much of the life of the community still transpires in the pubs that line the streets, including the famous L Street Tavern, which served as Robin Williams’s neighborhood bar in the movie Good Will Hunting. (The movie’s Oscar-winning screenwriters, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, grew up across the river in Cambridge [2], a neighborhood that South Boston residents love to deride.)

The best way to really get the flavor of the community is to pop into one of these throwbacks to Boston’s Irish past, order a Guinness and fish-and-chips, and talk to the guy next to you at the bar.