ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Jamie Cerulli and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy enjoy the jokes of comedian David Russo at the 19th annual St. Patrick’s Day Lunch at LHAND on Thursday.
BY THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — It was a sea of green Thursday as Lynn’s business and nonprofit community celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at a downtown lunch.
More than 200 people paid $15 each to feast on homemade corned beef and cabbage, boiled potatoes, carrots and Irish soda bread at the Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) charity event.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy welcomed the crowd and thanked them for their generosity.
“We always have a great time,” she said. “This is one of the high holy days on the Lynn political city calendar. And thanks to Joe Scanlon (the emcee) for going easy on me this year.”
Before introducing city council president and unopposed candidate for state representative Dan Cahill, Scanlon offered up an Irish prayer.
“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sunshine warm your face and may you remember that you still have many phone calls to make. That was from St. Agnes the relentless.”
Cahill called the LHAND lunch the city’s favorite event of the year.
“It’s a who’s who and who’s not of the Lynn political scene,” he said. “Councilor-at-Large Buzzy Barton couldn’t make it here today and he sends his best. He had a doctor’s appointment. We thought it was because Trump keeps on doing so well that it put Buzzy in the hospital, but that’s not the case.”
Laurie Walsh, a member of the Democratic City Committee, who was described as very generous to Lynn for many years, received the Sullivan/Cronin Community Service Award.
Rick Ford, a retiree and former city councilor, received the Lyons/Muldoon Irish Person of the Year Award.
“I was shocked and almost started crying,” he said.
In an interview before the festivities, comedian David Russo, the lunch’s entertainment, said he would have to temper his act given the family-friendly crowd.
“Obviously this is middle America, so I have to switch it up,” he said. “There won’t be any of the usual cursing. We’re all adults and we’ve heard those words before, but maybe not in front of you grandmother. That’s the challenge. But it’s a cake walk for me because I’m well-trained.”
Still, he managed to make a few off-color jokes that the crowd appreciated.
“You know that expression Erin go Bragh?” he asked. “ I found out it was a guy who invented the bra. But I didn’t think it was possible that a guy could have invented it. If we did, we would have graded it differently, a ‘D’ would have been an ‘A.’ And we never would have waited 50 years to move the hook from the back of the bra to the front.”
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].