SOUTH BOSTON — The governor was there. The attorney general was there. At least two members of Congress were there. The Senate president was there. The state auditor was there. Half the Boston City Council was there.

The mayor of Boston? Not so much.

State Senator Nick Collins hosted his annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast on Sunday to a standing-room-only crowd at Local 7 in South Boston. The performance cemented what most of the room already knew: this is still his neighborhood, his party, and his stage.

Collins opened with a reworked rendition of The Wild Rover rewritten to torch Mayor Michelle Wu's tax agenda, and the packed room didn't just laugh. They sang along. Where Wu would have sat, there was a parking cone. A space saver, in South Boston tradition.

One political observer noted that the snub goes beyond Collins. The St. Patrick's Day breakfast is, for the Irish community in Boston, something close to a high holiday. Wu's absence reads less like a scheduling conflict and more like a mayor who doesn't attach much value to the group. It helps that the Irish are likely among Wu's worst voting cohorts, which makes the decision to skip that much easier.

Whether it's political strategy or something more personal, the result is the same: South Boston's biggest annual event went on without its mayor — though she was still the butt of many jokes.

Governor Healey, who arrived late and separately mentioned she had recently been in Florida, gave a speech attacking RFK Jr., defending Dunkin' Donuts, and landing some occasionally funny jokes. She stayed for the full event, including a front-row seat to State Auditor Diana DiZoglio's musical number targeting Beacon Hill Democrats. DiZoglio, a genuinely talented speaker and singer, delivered one of the more memorable performances of the afternoon. Healey's face throughout suggested she would have preferred to be literally anywhere else.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell took the stage, touted her record of suing the Trump administration, appeared to take a dig at the state audit, and left shortly after. The crowd cheered at every anti-Trump dig (this is still Massachusetts, after all), but Campbell didn't stick around long.

Congressman Stephen Lynch did a Trump impression that, if we're being honest, was genuinely funny.

City Councilor Ed Flynn was in attendance. So was Miniard Culpepper, the District 7 City Councilor who replaced Tania Fernandes Anderson after she was sentenced to federal prison. Culpepper is a good speaker. We'll see how he turns out.

Collins faces reelection in what is shaping up as a proxy war between South Boston's Democratic establishment and the Wu-aligned progressive wing. His challenger, Latoya Gayle, is widely viewed as a Wu-backed candidate recruited specifically to unseat the senator who torpedoed the mayor's signature tax proposal.