March Newsletter
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The high holy days, as they say. St. Patrick’s Day season. How lucky we are to be in a community where this observance of Irish culture spills out over the feast day into the rest of the month. A wonderful cacophony of fiddle tunes, malty beers, hearty food, sad tales, Catholic sorrow, and pagan magic.
It begins with A Tribute to Shane MacGowan and The Pogues on March 7th at Sportsmen’s Tavern. The Travesties will be playing alongside McCarthyizm, Crikwater, Captain Tom & the Hooligans, and Yellow Jack. Buffalo should take a lot of pride in this collection of musicians, who not only carry such a reverence for The Pogues, but also deliver the music so brilliantly. It’s the fourth year the show’s been up, and if you haven’t been yet, I highly recommend you get there.
Rehearsing these songs reminds me why Irish music is so important. It is impossible to sing “Birmingham Six” and not see in it the horrors that are happening in our country - “While over in Ireland eight more men lie dead, kicked down and shot in the back of the head” - the extrajudicial executions of people on matters of race and politics. “It’s the most distressful country the world has ever seen, they’re hanging men and women for the wearing of the green,” the traditional song reminds us. When I introduce “Paddy on the Canal,” I often refer to the words of Frank McCourt’s The Irish…and How They Got That Way. “Take any map of the United States, run your finger along the route of any canal, or any railroad. You’ll be passing over the graves of thousands of Irishmen who died along the way.” Bruce Springsteen’s “American Land” conjures, “the hands that built this country we’re always trying to keep out.” These are songs of immigration, genocide, struggle, hard work, and political violence.
None of these themes are ancient history, nor are they foreign, which makes it essential to address them not wistfully, but specifically in the context of our present. To sing these songs and not do so leaves them hollow.
Just a week ago, an electrician was killed in a tragic workplace accident at Burgard High School here in Buffalo. Jose Vasquez Jr. left behind a wife and five children. Money is being raised to provide for his funeral and his family: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-jose-vasquez-jrs-funeral-expenses
The abhorrent treatment of immigrants is endless. The tragedy of Nurul Amin Shah Alam here in Buffalo is a deep shame. Shah Alam was a 56 year old Rohingya refugee, nearly blind. After a year in the Erie County Holding Center, U.S. Customs and Border Protection returned him not to his family, but to the streets in February, and he died. Read more about Shah Alam’s life and his family, and help, here: https://gofund.me/37d29da01
Shah Alam came to America escaping religious persecution and genocide in Burma. The same reason the Irish came. If you walk around Holy Cross, you’ll undoubtedly be amongst countless who share his story. If you have family in that cemetery, consider what you’ve inherited from them: perseverance against genocide, a foothold in this country they clawed for, and a culture they had to fight to keep. Use that voice and your standing and your money and your time to fight and speak out for the immigrants who are coming here now. They should be reaping the benefit of this shared Nation of Immigrants. We should be using our advanced assimilation to aid those coming up the ladder behind us, not pulling it up. How foolish we’d be if we forgot.
Sláinte,
Tyler Bagwell
Buffalo
February 28, 2026
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