Sadly but not surprisingly Peter is aff and awa frae this forum.Mores the pity and I for one shall miss his contributions which I have invariably found informative and balanced.He is like a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to tunes and that is good.OK some o ye might not agree wi some of his comments but a spade is always best called a spade and he was not afraid to say so.Ye need people like Peter to keep the tradition steady, sadly some o ye think ye know better.
Slán Go Foill Peter and thanks for your contributions,efforts and stoicism with the numpties o’er the years
Slán Agat
Uilliam 
Peter is one of the finest contributors to this board. I look forward to seeing him in the next couple of weeks in Miltown Malbay. From what I see, he is the first one to give praise, and the one who gives us an insider’s look at the small world of the tradition. His views, to me, are refreshing and clearly punctuated, very much like his playing style, which I am a fan of.
I sincerely hope that he isn’t done with this board. Once in a while there’s a thread with a gem of insight and to me that’s huge. Peter’s not the only one that I hold in the highest regard with contributions here, and we have seen some contributors go away as well, likely out of frustration.
IMHO, tradition is characterized by the new learning from the seasoned.
Yes, his posts were always a must read for me.
t
Ah, why’s Peter bailing? Can’t handle those numpties anymore? He really knows his stuff, terrific musician too.
I have listened to a couple of people vehemently insist he’s nether. Beg to differ! He’s pretty low on the “surly” piper scale, too. Very much the gent.
At the risk of inflating Peter’s (admittedly not very inflated) ego, I too sincerely value the contributions Peter makes to this board. Some of his comments in the past have rankled certain people here, and in a few cases they could perhaps have been made more delicately, but I think people who get annoyed by such comments are missing the point of why he makes them: Peter wants people to choose instruments that work and then take the time to develop the extraordinary patience necessary to learn to play them properly.
There are people of all skill levels on this board ranging from complete beginners who are still wrestling with the scale to a few of the finest exponents of the instrument currently alive—I can’t think of a forum where you’d have that degree of variety for most any orchestral or otherwise popular instrument. Peter is one of the few people on this board who is more or less “living the dream” so to speak, i.e., he’s not originally from Ireland, but has lived there for many years in one of the few small localities where traditional music can still be considered to be part of daily life. When he comments on things, it’s about as “straight from the horse’s mouth” as you can get. Those who ignore what he has to say do so at their own peril.
I think that some of us on this board who have been at uilleann piping for more than a few years tend to forget just how daunting the instrument can be for a complete beginner; that incredibly awkward feeling of having this squealing practice set strapped to you and having absolutely no idea how to get it to consistently do what you want it to do. Forums like this have a tendency to allow high degrees of impatience to fester and become downright toxic: for beginners (who, more often than not, seem to be pretty isolated from other players), there’s the incredibly frustrating feeling of wanting to play like the people they’ve heard on CDs right now and leapfrog over some of them more mundane yet crucial aspects of learning to play the instrument properly. For the more experienced players here, we sometimes tend to get tired of hearing the same questions and complaints from beginners, lose patience, and make ill-judged sarcastic comments that are occasionally (but not always!) out of line. There have been a few times when I’ve been tempted to give up on this forum due to stubborn comments I’ve read from people who seem determined to ignore my and other people’s well-intentioned advice. “Fine,” I think to myself, “if you really want to waste your time and money so badly, go ahead.” Lately, I’ve tried a bit harder to put myself in the shoes of some of these people on the other end and try not to be so quick to jump to conclusions. There have also been times when I’ve found it hard to take when someone is praising the work of a maker whose work I have found to be pretty mediocre, but again, I haven’t seen everything this maker has done, so I generally hold my tongue, recommend the makers whose stuff I’ve seen and played and know to be pretty reputable and leave it at that. Arguably the worst chanter I’ve ever played was made by a maker whose work is almost universally praised on this forum (I’m not sayin’ who, but do some detective work through my posts and you can probably figure it out for yourself) and seeing as how I’ve heard a number of other players with top-notch sets from said maker, I know not to write him off and slag him but rather realize that occasionally even good makers turn out a lemon and that whenever possible, you should endeavor to communicate in person with the person making your pipes to avoid any unnecessary difficulties.
Okay, I’m going off the rails now, so I’ll stop. Bottom line is that I hope we hear from Peter again here. I don’t want to put him on a pedestal or anything, but I generally value what he has to say highly and so should you.
A grave shame… I can completely understand though. Lately opinions of many good pipers have been shot down in flames by absolute beginners. This isn’t good. Opinion of how someone has worded something has become more important that what is being said. Why? … Surliness? This isn’t something I would be particularly proud of.
I’m sure he is applying his time far more productively on something a little less boring instead.
Pat.
I am one of those beginners that have learned a great dea from Mr. Laban’s posts. In addition to the written material, I have also been informed by his fine art photography on his web sight.
The internet is an invaluable tool for the uillean pipes its players, maintainers and makers. For me it all started with Pat D’Arcy’s incredible web sight.
All of your posts wheather or not there are responses contain information that keep it and its traditions alive and well.
I live three hours from the closest pipers I know. If my schedule allows I can attend two tionols annualy after driving 4 hours to get there. Simply put if were not for the internet I’d be playing my whistle and thinking of taking up the fiddle (not that there is any thing wrong that 
)
Jamie
I’ll miss Peter’s contributions here. He’s given us an interesting insight into events and participants in the Clare music community and beyond, and he holds a unique perspective as both an “insider” (being involved in the local Miltown Malbay scene) and an “outsider,” having moved there from another country and culture. His observations are often very revealing. I particularly enjoyed his photo essays and descriptions of rambles around Clare:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=38693
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=45097
Pipers may have missed a recent thread in the Whistle forum:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=50523
I don’t know if this discussion contributed to Peter’s decision to cease his participation here or not, but it did make me wonder.
Ah, breaking lances. Or just offering considered opinions, which others will not always take kindly to of course…
Got me kinda nostalgic for the good 'ol days when the mods were just scratching their heads/rolling their eyes as we typed out love letters like
Royce has written about 6 or 7 full pages of verbage about this crap. The original post could of read “Don’t send pipes to Patrick O’Hare of Belfast, he will keep what you send him, refuse to answer when you phone or write to him, and I am told as well that he has greatly modified the chanter I sent him two years ago.” Short and sweet. Ain’t gonna happen! “I can type 80 WPM! It’s got to be ruder! More boring! How can I extrapolate on a subject like not returning phone calls and make it sound like he’s poisoning my drinking water?!?!”
Bet he is still watching and doubt that he has totally ‘Terminated’ his membership
he’ll be back
John
Having been an episodic visitor of late, I’m still mystified. Where/when did Peter announce his departure?
I tried my very best to keep him here, but he made it quite clear he had had enough and wanted nothing further to do with C&F. While I can’t blame him, I regret his decision to leave… we have all lost on this one.
I deeply regret Peter’s departure. What an extraordinary resource and remarkable musician. It’s a reminder of both the need to try to be patient with newcomers and a need for newcomers to show some respect and humility. Both are darn near impossible to legislate.
Just thinking the very same thing Roger. I saw a couple of differences of opinion lately, but could anyone point me to the posts that were the last straw for Peter?
regards,
Mark.
I think it was something that has been building for a couple of years now, and that there was no “one” thing that lead to it. I am really not at liberty to comment further on the matter, but to echo Dale’s post, I think the lack of respect and humility issue has had a big part in it.
If anybody needs to know more, I recommend that you contact Peter yourselves and refrain from further speculation in this (as well as the other) forum(s).
Thanks.
Sad to lose a tradition-bearer on this forum. They are badly needed though… 
Veteran posters needn’t assume that just because some particular posting bozo isn’t giving heed to their council that no one else is.
Hundreds read and benefit from the threads without ever weighing in. Don’t get miffed because the bozos responding disagree. Think, instead, of the good that’s being done for the silent majority.
I treasure Peter’s contributions and have benefitted from his council in public and in private. I’m probably a better piper because of his input. I hope he’ll stay around so that someday I could actualy be a good piper. 
To heck with the bozos Peter. You have many here that look to you and those like you for mentoring. Where else are we going to get it if not in a venue like this?
Patrick
Oh dear. I’m so sorry to hear this for many reasons. I really learned a lot from Peter’s posts—I’ll never forget my slow air definition problems —and he went further and sent me an article via email and some other help when I was having some difficulties that weren’t being talked about in a thread. I was hoping that maybe he would still be a part of the Pub where his photographs are looked forward to by many people. I know sometimes a person has to make a change. When things get too frustrating, trying to help people isn’t really very rewarding. I just wish this wasn’t one of those times. Good luck Peter and thank you for all your help. If you change your mind at some point, I’ll sure be happy to see you!
Even though I didn’t always agree with Peter, and sometimes found him too caustic, it’s too bad that he’s left the forum.
But I will say this, and this relates to the idea that Pat brought up about credentialing experts. By and large, the disgruntled leave C&F, they’re not kicked off. By that, I mean that it’s that person’s decision.
I’ve posted a few things that engendered really asinine comments from various people. It’s never made me want to leave C&F, though; this whole lack-of-credibility-on-the-internet thing goes both ways.
Certainly no one can expect that they’ll be continually, totally, and unconditionally respected on a moderately-moderated Internet forum. The idea is ludicrous. That which makes us want to be a part of such a community is, by definition, that which might drive us away.
Peter is ultimately responsible for his departure, sure. But, the rest of us also have a responsibility to encourage people whose opinions we trust and to, well, help police the idiots. I have on occasion (maybe not enough) jumped into threads when I thought things were getting out of hand, maybe just to inject some humor. I’ve also sent PMs to people I thought were being unfairly attacked, just to be supportive. Although I’m not actually sure what in particular prompted Peter’s departure, I would also be willing to bet that it’s multifactorial.
Am I the only person on here who’s read a newspaper or walked outside his house? The world’s a nasty place; hospitality takes effort.
Stuart
I think the departure of PL says something important about the way the internet in general and this forum in particular relate to traditional music and musicians. Those left absent the benefit of his experience and his words would do well to think on it carefully.