Local Band’s Performance at Irish Pub was a Hit
With bagpipes playing in the background, a freshly poured pint of Guinness in almost everyone’s hand and a smile across everyone’s face, Shilelagh Law began to perform at Mahoney’s Irish Pub in Poughkeepsie, New York over this past weekend. To kick off St. Patrick’s Day festivities a little early, the Police Emerald Society of the Hudson Valley hosted this event where all proceeds went to their organization.
A special menu was put together by Mahoney’s consisting of Irish staple foods such as corned beef sandwiches, shepards pie and beef stew. You can’t listen to Irish music without Irish cuisine and of course the main dish, Guinness. “We’ve run out of Guinness pint glasses,” said a waitress to a customer. As the music got louder and the crowd grew larger the supply of Guinness started to lessen.
“Irish music brings everyone together, it gives you a good excuse to enjoy a pint and gather with friends,” said Ryan Dumbroff, fan of Shilelagh Law. This band prides themselves on uniting New Yorkers with Irish music. Old songs, new songs, old fans, new fans, this band performs for all types of people. If you haven’t heard of Shilelagh Law before maybe you would recognize their music from a Honda website commercial, or most recently the CBS show ‘Blue Bloods’. What is extremely special about this band is that although they have grown significantly in the past years, they have stayed true to their love of playing in small local pubs.
One of the bands most popular songs starts to play and the crowd goes crazy. “Meet me on Mclean brings back old memories,” said Jenna Valente who used to see the band perform in Yonkers many times before. “Seeing the band come up here is an amazing thing, it gives us college kids something different to do on the weekends and brings a lot of us nostalgic memories.”
Even if you weren’t familiar with the band it was easy to jump into the lyrics and enjoy yourself. ‘Galway girl,’ another of the bands well known songs, was the song that ended the night. When you looked around everyone in Mahoney’s stopped their private conversations, raised their glass and sang along. “I didn’t know the words, but I felt like I did. That’s how welcoming the environment was,” said Erik Franceschini, a new fan and resident of Wappingers Falls.
The Irish Echo once said, “Shilelagh Law isn’t just giving Irish New York City its sound, they’re giving the neighborhood its story as well.” They came to Poughkeepsie and gave us all their heart, their talent and their good spirits.
