NEW YORK — It’s the sound of the city laughing or crying, celebrating or mourning. For 45 years, the bagpipes and drums of the fire department’s Emerald Society Band provided a New York soundtrack in good times and bad: along Fifth Avenue on St. Patrick’s Day, alongside caskets at hundreds of Sept. 11 funerals.
The band celebrated its 45th anniversary this week, after decades of performances in Yankee and Shea Stadiums, City Hall and Carnegie Hall. Its renditions of traditional Celtic music have reverberated beyond the city limits, too: The firefighters performed at President Bush’s inauguration and in the Irish Parliament.
The kilt-wearing musicians even once earned a spread in the fashion magazine Vogue. And while that thought may bring a smile, the pipe-and-drum corps is no laughing matter …
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