Dia diut! St. Patrick’s Day festivities were in full swing at the Empire State Plaza Concourse on Wednesday, March 11: From vendors offering various Irish services, to musicians and dancers performing live, the St. Patrick’s Day Celebration had a little bit of something for anyone to enjoy. 

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA)’s Albany Rebels, led by Marc Messina, was among one of the vendors present. The Rebels play on Gaelic football and hurling leagues in the Midwest region, which includes teams from Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, and non-New York organizations such as those in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois. 

Gaelic football, as explained by Messina, is “a little bit soccer and a little bit rugby.” Instead of throwing the ball to your teammates, you can hand pass or strike the ball in one hand while supporting the ball in the other. Much like soccer, a goalpost is placed on either end of the field, with three points being rewarded to the team that gets their ball into the opposing teams’ net. 

Hurling blends lacrosse and field hockey together and uses a heavy ball a bit bigger than a baseball. “You can move up to four steps, and then you must bounce the ball to one of your teammates,” said Messina. The ball balances on a player’s paddle, which has no support or netting to cradle it. 

The Rebels have had success, with the hurling team having won the Midwest championship, and the Gaelic football team having made it to finals twice. After winning the Midwest championship, the victorious GAA team would go to Nationals; however, due to travel distance, the Rebels have yet to attend the event. “We’re still waiting for a chance to go to Nationals this year,” said Messina. “It’s in Boston, which would definitely be attainable.”

The Two Rivers Gaelic League, or “Carobh Chumar an Dá Uisce” in Gaelic, was also at the Concourse to promote its Gaelic teaching classes. The group offers courses at various levels, from “Total Beginner,” to “Ardrang,” or Gaelic pronunciation classes. All classes are held online via Zoom, enabling greater access than to just people located in or around Albany. Two Rivers encourages anyone of any age to attend its courses: Like the pamphlet that the group gave out says, it is “is fearr go mall ná go brách,” or better late than never, to learn a new language. 

Starting at 11 a.m., local music trio Foil in the Muck performed. The group consists of acoustic guitarist and lead vocalist Danny Quane and Baron drummist and background vocalist Declan McSherry. The third member, a fiddler, changes depending on venue: 

Foil in the Muck is a “play on words for the town in Tipperary,” the place in Ireland where Quane’s family is from. “I didn’t want to call [the band] ‘Foil the Muck’ because that means ‘the bay of the pigs,'” said Quane. “So, I thought ‘Foil in the Muck’ was kind of ambidextrous.”

Quane and McSherry, the two constant members of the group, met at the Rustic Barn Pub in Troy about two years ago. “I play a lot of music in the Capital District, as does Declan,” Quane said.

For the bandmates, honoring their Irish heritage is incredibly important. “I grew up off of Irish music,” Quane explained. “It was the only thing I was allowed to listen to until I was 13. “My dad’s an accordion player and my mom’s a singer, so I grew up playing all these tunes.”

“I’ve marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the city every year for my life,” McSherry added. “I played a whole bunch of different types of music, more than just Irish music. But then I met Danny and I saw niche that I could fill, and I was just like, ‘I could do this,’ and it’s been a lot of fun.”

Foil in the Muck will be playing in Westchester at Pizza Bronxville on the 17 to wrap up St. Patrick’s Day festivities. The band also performs at Conroy’s Irish Tavern in Cohoes on the last Friday of every month.