Rita Nolan (left) speaks with Gov. Kathy Hochul at the St. Patrick's Day lunch at the Irish Center in South Buffalo, Friday, March 18, 2022. Nolan knew Hochul's mother when they were growing up and she was best friends with her aunt. Hochul was named the honorary chairwoman of the event.

Ever since a couple of departed friends – Assemblyman Richard J. Keane and his pal Tommy Blake – sponsored a St. Patrick's Week lunch in 1973 to benefit the Buffalo Irish Center, the event has never failed to draw anybody who's anybody in local politics.

Prospective candidates for Senate, Assembly or judge glad hand their way through the Abbott Road landmark. So do a host of current and past officeholders. Maybe a future mayor or county executive was working the crowd on Friday. And the latest political gossip sweeps over the steaming piles of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes.

But even though the region's political luminaries have always circled the date on their calendars for almost half a century, the event never before featured a governor of New York.

That's when Gov. Kathy Hochul of Buffalo – the first woman to hold the office and the first upstater in more than a century – took to the microphone. She acknowledged that a flood of memories, history and circumstances were joining together in a moment.

"Home, sweet home," the governor told the crowd. "This is more emotional than I thought it would be.

"It's a very big deal to me, and it's an honor to be your governor."

The former Kathleen Courtney spoke of her Irish immigrant grandparents, their stories typical of many  families, and of her plans to display the grit of "hearty Irish immigrants" while campaigning this year for a full term. The steel her grandfather and father produced in Lackawanna, she said, is now part of her own resolve.

"I've been tested before, but I have resiliency in me," she said. "We all have that story – a story that unifies us as New Yorkers."

Hochul then paved the way for Bishop Michael W. Fisher and a necessary order of business. In his first St. Patrick's Luncheon, the new leader of the Diocese of Buffalo noted his grandfather hailed from Cork, and followed his predecessors' custom of granting a "commutation" for the Lenten abstinence from meat on Fridays – asking that Catholics "pick another day." That removed any impediment for the traditional Irish-American meal to grace the center's dozens of tables, while also praying for those "in harm's way in Urkraine."

Hochul may have also offered a glimpse into her behind-the-scenes discussions with the Buffalo Bills for a new stadium in Orchard Park when she "requested" Fisher's dispensation.

"It's kind of how I negotiate," she said, "I just put it out there."

But the governor was by no means the only pol to work the Irish Center on Friday. State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli never misses the event, reciting his annual quip that his middle initial stands for "Patrick" (it's really Peter). Mayor Byron W. Brown and County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz took a bow, while a host of South Buffalo Democrats such as State Sen. Timothy M. Kennedy and Assemblyman Patrick B. Burke flanked the governor on the podium.

No Republicans found their way to such a vaunted position, but maybe that's because Republicans rarely hold office in South Buffalo. Still, a couple of tables of GOP types – including Senate candidate Joe Pinion and attorney general hopeful Michael Henry – took over a table possibly a tad closer to the stage this year than in the past.

State Motor Vehicles Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder, the former assemblyman and Buffalo comptroller who now co-chairs the event with Rep. Brian M. Higgins (in Washington for House votes), said Keane and Blake's original concept was to convene friends of all stripes.

"There were always so many elected officials from both parties," he said, "and that's the tradition it has always been."

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Rita Nolan (left) speaks with Gov. Kathy Hochul at the St. Patrick's Day lunch at the Irish Center in South Buffalo, Friday, March 18, 2022. Nolan knew Hochul's mother when they were growing up and she was best friends with her aunt. Hochul was named the honorary chairwoman of the event.

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