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In 2019 The Nassau County Police Emerald Society<br />
Pipe Band is celebrating our 45th Anniversary<br />
year and in March we enjoyed our biggest<br />
day of the year: The New York City St. Patrick’s<br />
Day Parade. This year, the parade was held on<br />
Saturday March 16, 2019 because the 17th fell<br />
on a Sunday and for religious reasons the parade<br />
is never held on the Roman Catholic Sabbath.<br />
The NYC Parade is the largest parade in the<br />
world and the band has marched in the NYC parade<br />
every year since our founding, so this year’s<br />
“long walk” up Fifth Avenue was particularly<br />
special for us. To our great delight, participation<br />
in the NYC Parade by the department ranks has<br />
grown tremendously in the last few years and<br />
we hope to see participation continue to grow.<br />
Many years ago, the pipe band had a (semi) regular<br />
column in this newsletter and we thought<br />
our 45th Anniversary would be a great reason<br />
to bring it back.<br />
KNOW YOUR HISTORY<br />
The Nassau County Police Emerald Society Pipe<br />
Band was founded in September 1974. Its purpose<br />
was to form and promote an interest in bagpiping<br />
and drumming, while creating a friendly<br />
and fraternal spirit amongst its members. Several<br />
previous attempts to start a band had been<br />
made but an avid interest was never developed.<br />
With the vison and leadership of Jerry Cronin<br />
(HPB) as bandmaster and Bob Rafferty (DD) as<br />
his assistant, the dream was finally realized with<br />
musical and organizational leadership offered<br />
from other pipe bands in the NY metropolitan<br />
area. Based on our police and quasi-military<br />
foundation a military-style uniform was<br />
adopted, highlighted by a black tunic and the<br />
kilt tartan known as “Modern MacBeth” which<br />
was chosen by charter band members because<br />
it contains and highlights the colors of Nassau<br />
County. There have been several variations from<br />
and additions to the original uniform, but the<br />
original kilt design is still in use 45 years later.<br />
The band’s inaugural performance took place<br />
in 1975 at Eisenhower Park with eight pipers<br />
and four drummers. Still awaiting the completion<br />
and arrival of our first kilt order, the band<br />
performed wearing the standard NCPD dress<br />
uniform with a white turtleneck shirt and green<br />
beret.<br />
In 1981, Police Commissioner Sam Rozzi, recognizing<br />
the goodwill and public relations<br />
benefit of the pipe band, officially designated<br />
the band as a Departmental Band, a status we<br />
are honored to enjoy today. As a Departmental<br />
Band, we perform at dozens of official NCPD<br />
and Nassau County functions throughout the<br />
year. Many of the original charter members are<br />
still around and active in the band today. The<br />
charter member who served the longest in the<br />
band as an active member of the department<br />
was former Chief of Department Steve Skrynecki<br />
who retired in 2017. The longest serving<br />
active members of the band today are charter<br />
members Dick Hanley (First PCT, retired) and<br />
Tom Essex (HPB, retired). Dick, our revered and<br />
long-time lead bass drummer, holds the record<br />
as the only member of the band to have marched<br />
in every NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade since the<br />
band started marching in it 45 years ago. He has<br />
never missed the city parade and shows no signs<br />
of breaking his streak.<br />
32<br />
Since those early years, we have marched in<br />
thousands of parades, taught hundreds of pipe<br />
and drum students and performed at countless<br />
department functions including our most solemn<br />
and sacred task: leading our fallen brother<br />
and sister officers to their final resting place. The<br />
band has successfully competed in the Eastern<br />
United States Pipe Band Association (yes, that’s<br />
a thing) and performed throughout the United<br />
States and abroad. Most recently, the band travelled<br />
to Dublin, Ireland in 2016 to take part in<br />
a pipe band parade commemorating the 100th<br />
Anniversary of the 1916 “Easter Rising” Irish<br />
fight for independence from British rule. We parade<br />
in Washington, DC whenever one of our<br />
members is inducted into the National Law Enforcement<br />
Officers Memorial and we are in the<br />
planning stages of a November trip to march in<br />
the San Diego Veteran’s Day Parade.<br />
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM<br />
In the early days of the band, the average age<br />
of the charter members was about 26. These<br />
days, it feels like it’s 46 and so we are looking<br />
for fresh faces. The 7 year gap between the last<br />
two major hiring waves is partly to blame as is<br />
the perception that joining the band is difficult<br />
and requires some sort of elaborate and embarrassing<br />
initiation ceremony (that last part might<br />
be a little true). We want to clear a few things up<br />
about joining the band:<br />
1. You do not need to be 100% or even 1% Irish<br />
to join the band. Anyone who can read my Polish<br />
last name can see that. Membership is open<br />
to any active or retired law enforcement officer<br />
(Police/Peace) who is employed by any law
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