To the strains of The Minstrel Boy and The Wearing of the Green, a pipe band led Gerry Adams on to the stage of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 for his first meeting with Sinn Féin's New York union supporters since the controversy surrounding the death of Robert McCartney.
At the back of the room, volunteers prepared huge piles of bacon and cabbage, and a large poster of James Connolly hung at the side of the stage. Patrick Lynch, president of New York's 36,000-strong police union, whipped up the crowd with a speech that attacked the PSNI.
"I don't consider them police officers. They are soldiers who are trying to keep our people down for standing up for what's right," he said, to cheers from the audience.
But something was very different about this event. Every year Sinn Féin collects tens of thousands of dollars from American unions, but this event was cash-free, not even a bucket going round for loose change.
"No fundraising will take place to avoid it being made into a contentious issue and a distraction to the necessary work of rebuilding the peace process," said a Friends of Sinn Féin advert in the Irish-American newspapers this week.
Nobody mentions Robert McCartney at this event, but Patrick Lynch does make an oblique reference. "Gerry, remember you are on the right track when all others are saying you are not, when the people you are fighting against are trying to get the masses to fight against you," he said.
Local 100 president Roger Toussaint, a Caribbean emigrant, spoke about the struggle to overcome British colonial oppression. Someone shouted: "Maith an buachaill, a Gearóid," as Gerry took the podium to deliver a speech about former IRA man, Michael J Quill, the founder of New York's transport union.
Gerry complimented Mr Toussaint on his Caribbean brogue, before saying that one terrible event in Belfast could not derail the peace process.
He linked the struggle for union recognition in New York with the 1981 hunger strike and ended with the Bobby Sands quote: "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children."
The crowd was on their feet. Darlyne Lawson, an African-American union employee, was delighted. "For a mother like me, the bit about the laughter of the children was beautiful," she said. She has not heard about events in Belfast, but believes Gerry Adams is an honest politician and can overcome his difficulties.
Jeffrey Cullen, retired, was not so sold on the Sinn Féin message. Wearing a green jersey and green baseball cap, he has been reading Irish-American newspapers and is "not 100 per cent" in support of the republican movement.
"There seems to be an older IRA and a younger IRA and the younger guys are causing all these problems. They are not controlled," he said.