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Annual Great Guinness Toast Held To Benefit Fallen Officers' Memorial Fund

CORONA (CBSLA.com) —  Shamrocks Grill and Pub in Corona, in conjunction with Guinness, held its second annual Jeremiah MacKay Memorial Great Guinness Toast.

MacKay is the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department detective killed Feb. 12, 2013, by former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner.

To mark the event, many of MacKay's friends, family and fellow officers attended the toast to raise their glasses and raise some money.

KCAL9's Crystal Cruz attended the event and said the Los Angeles Police Emerald Society Pipes and Drums performed.

This was fitting, as MacKay loved to play the bagpipes. All the time.

"The most memorable one is he played the bagpipes at his sister's wedding," says MacKay's wife Lynette.

MacKay was also big into raising money and, along with the Emerald Society, most proud of the work he did raising funds for the families of fallen officers.

"Jeremiah was always the one that would be first to volunteer to play the pipes for whatever cause and use whatever money he would raise as donation to the Emerald Society," San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Gary Odebralski said.

Tragically, MacKay's own family would come to need the support of the Emerald Society.

"It's just a blessing to see everybody and just shows how many people loved my husband besides myself and my kids," says Lynette.

The Emerald Society was hoping to raise a few thousand dollars from Friday night's event.

Sometimes called "St. Practice Day," the Great Guinness Toast was first held in 1993 at Mullaney's Harp and Fiddle Irish Pub in Pittsburgh to simply be a simultaneous toast held in several places. It has grown exponentially and is often used as a fundraiser.

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