A month or two back,I wrote a piece called ‘losing my religion’,which apart from raising a (very interesting) linguistic debate,told of my existentiallist angst of perhaps losing my previously consuming interest in Irish music.
This IS NOT the case.
Music,of all kinds is an ALL consuming passion of mine,and I have one of those minds that never switches off-o.k.,it might not generate any great thoughts-it just never switches off! 
Lately,I had been investigating Baroque(and earlier) music,so I end up with Two one keyed flutes and SEVEN Recorders.
Earlier,I buy Uilleann Pipes (so obviously,I DO like this Irish stuff,you don’t buy pipes on a whim).
Twenty five years ago,until about fifteen years ago,on and off,I played Sax in Jazz and Rock bands.
However,One person just can’t be expected to listen to and play EVERYTHING,and at the minute I just feel a bit,well 
!!
I think that I need to get back to the ‘wellspring’ of my current musical renaissance,and concentrate on the WHISTLE.
The funny thing is,when I took to the whistle three years ago,I was quite happy with it-I realised that it is an ideal instrument for ad-hoc music making-small,portable,relatively cheap,mechanically simple-yet capable of the most intricate and moving music I could ever wish to make.
In short,it is a COMPLETE musical instrument-not some ‘trainer’ on the way to Flute,Pipes,Fiddle etc.
Sooo..,I’ve -rightly or wrongly- decided to ‘limit’ my playing to whistles only, for a while.
I can only see that this will be a good thing,focusing my mind,and fingers,on the one type of instrument(well,I cant just play the ONE whistle can I? ) .
Also,I am trying to focus my listening to mainly whistle tracks too(in chronological order,if possible-listened to Sean Maguire Snr. recorded in 1952,followed by Tom McHaile this afternoon,to get a sense of ‘history’)
There have been earlier posts on people ‘over-stretching’ themselves with too many instruments.
What do people think?
Should I lie down in a darkened room(Nurse-the screens!)?
I’ve done the same thing. I just traded all my flutes for whistles and haven’t picked up my guitar or bass in a year. The whistle’s the only thing I’m focusing on. It must be the right thing to do because I’m as focused and happywith the whistle now as any instrument I’ve ever played and becoming fairly decent as well! My variety comes with different keys and different whistles.
Thanks Sir Nick,
That makes two of us!! 
Your giving up of Bass and Guitar confirms my idea that the Whistle is a complete instrument and not some toy.
As if we needed confirmation:
Mary Bergin (ladies first)
Willie Clancy
Micho Russell (my hero)
Sean Potts(please,please record more!)
Sean Ryan
Gavin Whelan
Cormach Breatnach
et al.
and it is infinitely more portable… trust me… wielding a set of whistles, no matter how packaged, is ever so much easier than getting a 3/4 size wooden bass through a crowd. 
Wadda about “Bring’in it all Bach home”
“Darkness at the break of noon,
Shadows even the silver spoon,
The hand made blade…,”
Slan,
D.
…seeing as how the guitar is my main squeeze, I’m always saddened to see someone put it down. 
But, I do understand that it’s not always best to spread yourself too thin by practicing lots of various instruments.
I’ve been playing guitar now for almost ten years and I’ve no intentions of putting it down for the sake of the tin whistle. However, I do not intend to put the tin whistle down either! I’ve only just begun playing the whistle, and so far, I’m learning it for the sole purpose of learing Irish Trad (which I love). With the guitar, I write all of my own songs, no covers.
So, you can see that each instrument serves its own special purpose in my life. The tin whistle: learing traditional Irish tunes. The guitar: writing my own tunes. I’m also working on an album (just me and my guitar), and I’m sure that I’ll sneak some tin whistle parts in some of my songs…
In the upcoming semester at college, I’ll be taking a beginner piano class, and I have no idea what road that will take me down!!