Fire Museum showcases the FDNY’s musical tradition

‘Strike Up the Band’ on display through summer

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN

Posted 5/19/23

Tim Geraghty first donned the uniform of the FDNY Emerald Society Pipes and Drums in 2007, nearly a decade after he became an FDNY firefighter and more than 30 years from when his father Edward Geraghty first started playing bagpipes in the band. 

Throughout his childhood, Geraghty listened to his dad, who retired as lieutenant from Ladder 26 in Harlem, play the bagpipes. And in the aftermath of 9/11 Geraghty saw his father’s role and that of his dad’s bandmates take on a new importance at the funerals of the 343 FDNY firefighters killed that day.