Boston Is Full of Joy and Low on Beer. Blame the Scots. (one article and a few videos)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/us/boston-scotland-soccer-tartan-army.html

The city of Boston is in the midst of a benevolent invasion of gregarious, kilted visitors, who smell vaguely of pale lager and speak a lyrical language that, as it turns out, is English.

The Tartan Army — thousands of soccer fans from Scotland, here to see their national team play outside Boston in two matches of the World Cup — are packing this old city’s narrow streets, its subway cars, restaurants and pubs, and filling the air with the cry of bagpipes. The Scots are bursting out of historic Faneuil Hall, and the less historic but maybe more famous Cheers bar.

They have put a serious dent in the region’s strategic beer reserves, and have become social media darlings, as they gently prank their hosts by dunce-capping statues with traffic cones.

-snip-

“The peaceful invasion of the Tartan Army has made Boston the top World Cup host city,” Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston boasted in an interview. “There is nowhere you can go in the city right now without seeing someone in a kilt. It has been absolutely delightful.”

-snip-

Thousands of Scottish soccer fans in Boston to see their national team play in the World Cup have put a serious dent in the region’s strategic beer reserves. The Tartan Army has charmed locals and become social media darlings in the process. nyti.ms/4uHIHVL

— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2026-06-19T21:10:06.352346Z

[mopinko]

1. just delightful.

[highplainsdem]

5. It made me smile, partly because it reminded me of some happily drunk, sports-loving Scotsmen I

met when I lived in NYC long ago. The Toronto Scottish rugby team was there to play a NY rugby team, and I met two of them at PJ Clarke's, my favorite bar. They asked if I'd like to go to the game the next day on Wards Island, and then invited me to the team's party afterward at an Upper East Side bar owned by a Scottish couple. There was lots of singing as well as drinking. They were all very well behaved, despite all the drinking. Charming. They kept telling me I should move to Toronto, that it was a much better city than New York.

They weren't all from Scotland originally, but most were, hence the name. I remember one was from Liverpool.

Delightful accents.

[mopinko]

6. my very best friend is scots/irish. she's been there a couple times.

every time i see her, she tells me “we gotta go”. which we will 1 day, but 1st we have to argue about how much time to spend in ireland on this trip. (i’m 100% irish.)

so, i had to keep an eye on the whole thing cuz of her. she’s in heaven.
(i’m also a big outlander fan)

the part that got me was that they cleaned up after themselves. have never seen such a civilized mob.

[3catwoman3]

2. Sounds like fun!

A handsome man in a kilt is sexy as all getup, IMO.

And I love the sound of bagpipes.

[calimary]

3. I dunno... bagpipes start up and I just have to GET UP...

… and start DANCIN’! With joyful abandon!

[Amaryllis]

4. Thanks for the links!!!!