Former Manchester mayor and retired music teacher Bob Baines leads Wild Irish Breakfast attendees in his trademark song, "MacNamara's Band," during Thursday's 31st breakfast.

NASHUA – Coaxed back to the Wild Irish Breakfast panel of “Irish Wits” after a several-year hiatus, former U.S. Congressman Charlie Bass gave a professional comedian a run for his money Thursday morning, delighting a hybrid, in-person and virtual gathering of folks who came out or logged on to take part in the PLUS Company of Nashua’s signature fundraiser.

To some, it may have seemed that Bass, a moderate Republican who represented New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional district for several terms beginning in the late 1990s up until about a decade ago, may have pushed the envelope a tad with a couple of his jokes, but if so, it didn’t show in the prolonged rounds of laughter that erupted across the room.

Despite the early hour, in-person attendees were in an upbeat mood from sign-in to departure, which many attributed to the return to an in-person event, if still augmented by a video-streaming option.

It also appeared the majority of ticket holders chose the in-person option, as evidenced by the robust turnout that filled most of the seats that were spaced farther apart than usual in the DoubleTree by Hilton ballroom.

Each of the eight speakers included words of tribute to the late Bernie Streeter, who, along with the late Michael Monks, are known as the co-founders of the Wild Irish Breakfast. The breakfast was the first since Streeter passed last November; Monks died several years ago.

Comedian Juston McKinney's image appears on the video monitor behind him as he cracks jokes at Thursday's 31st Wild Irish Breakfast, the PLUS Company of Nashua's signature fundraiser.

It also marked former Nashua mayor Donnalee Lozeau’s debut as master of ceremonies – known as “Blarney Master” in Wild Irish Breakfast parlance. Whether organizers considered the title “Blarney Mistress” as a nod to the event’s first female Blarney Master isn’t known.

It was back in the late 1980s when Streeter and Monks, during a PLUS Company board meeting, began tossing around the idea of hosting a St. Patrick’s Day event of some kind that could become a significant fundraiser for the agency.

Born was the Wild Irish Breakfast, which the PLUS Company unveiled on St. Patrick’s Day 1991 with a small panel of speakers and a small number of tickets sold – but a strong sense of optimism for its future.

The formula worked. The breakfast quickly became the agency’s signature fundraiser, known for combining the humorous blarney of certain “Irish wits” with raising funds for PLUS Company’s adult education and socialization program, designed to guide clients toward “developing skills, increasing self-reliance and becoming vital, productive members of the community,” according to its mission statement.

Among the vintage breakfast moments played on the large monitors Thursday was a segment from several years ago that featured Streeter, as Blarney Master, introducing the one and only Dan Chan, the late former Nashua restaurant owner and regular WIB participant known for his fractured English and long-winded speeches that Streeter comically tried to end in various ways.

Irish step dancers from the McGonagle School of Irish Dance perform at the outset of Thursday's PLUS Company Wild Irish Breakfast, which took place before an in-person and virtual audience at the DoubleTree Hilton in Nashua.

Nick Koenig, a PLUS Company client for 11 years, shared with the audience his experiences with the agency, citing among other things his participation in Special Olympics and how he and his friends learned how to play Bingo and other games online and participate in Zoom get-togethers when COVID set in two years ago.

Koenig finished with several Irish-themed jokes, and signed off to a standing ovation.

Former Manchester Mayor Bob Baines returned Thursday after missing several years to run his own St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser in Manchester.

Baines sang one verse of his trademark song, “MacNamara’s Band,” then his own version, with lyrics paying tribute to Streeter.

Gov. Chris Sununu came up with a few humorous quips, one of which came at the expense of U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, who, as did senior U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, appeared via video link.

PLUS Company client Nick Koenig addresses Thursday's gathering of the 31st Wild Irish Breakfast. In foreground is Mayor Jim Donchess, sitting with other panelists on the stage.

“That’s a shocker,” Sununu said of Hassan not appearing in person. “Chris Christie has been here more times than she has,” he added, referring to the former New Jersey governor who appeared at one breakfast some years ago.

Juston McKinney, a professional stand-up comic from Newmarket, kept the audience laughing, noting the heat that Sununu took from some corners when the state opened COVID testing sites at some state liquor stores.

“The bad news is I have COVID … the good news is I hit a $20 scratch ticket,” McKinney said to laughs.

Recalling his appearance at a St. Patrick’s Day event in Lawrence, Massachusetts, several years ago, McKinney said he was taken aback when an event organizer asked him to stay away from “jokes about drinking.”

“He said, ‘we don’t want to put that out there.’ Well, it’s out there,” he said he answered. “You do know that it’s 8 a.m. and everyone is hammered, right? The bagpiper, he couldn’t stand up straight. I asked him how he learned to play the bagpipes, he said ‘it’s just like blowing into a Breathalizer. That’s how I start me car in the morning,” McKinney said to a round of laughter.

In a blast from the past video shown at Thursday's Wild Irish Breakfast, the late Bernie Streeter, co-founder of the breakfast and longtime Blarney Master, tries to convince Dan Chan, a breakfast regular for years, that his stint at the microphone had ended. The two brought WIB attendees many laughs over the years.

Meanwhile, Bass, who just recently turned 70, probably took the prize for eliciting the biggest laugh of the morning when he shared a brief story about his friend “Paddy,” who was walking home from the pub one night when he came across a woman tied to a set of railroad tracks.

“Paddy untied her, took her home, and they had the most wonderful evening together,” Bass said with a wink. When Paddy told his friend Seamus about it, a fascinated Seamus asked, ‘tell me, Paddy, was she good looking?’

“Paddy said, ‘I dunno … I haven’t found her head yet.'”

Capping his time at the microphone a few minutes later, Bass turned serious in recalling his friend, Streeter.

“Bernie epitomized what true public service meant,” he told the gathering. “What he has done for his district, for Nashua, especially, is unforgettable.”

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.