I had alook at Na Piobairi Uilleann’s yearly review and couldn’t help but notice that they don’t seem to have any time for Music or Musicians from the North of Ireland? 6 or 9 counties!!
Of the 41 musicians that took part in their Monthly Cobblestone recitals only 1 musician was from Ulster (Dermot McLoughlin from Derry now living in Dublin, for over 25 years).
Of the 18 venues visited by the piperlink programme only two were up north - Leterkenny and Belfast.
Does anyone know if it’s a policy of the organisation to exclude pipers and musicians such as Tiarnan O’Duinnchinn, John McSherry, Maurice Bradley, Cillian Vallely, Francis McIlduff, Daire Murphy, Jarlath Henderson, Patrick Davey, Barry Kerr, Ciarán MacFeidmhlimidh, Joe McHugh, Joe McLoughlin etc. etc. etc.
Perhaps NPU forgets the input of the great northern pipers in the preservation of this fine art. People such as The McPeakes, Sean McAloon, Tomas O’Cannain, Mickey Gallagher, William Kennedy etc. etc.
I wondered if anyone else spotted this apparent cultural partition being excersised by NPU
Since they stopped going to Bettystown, it now constitutes a one county organisation, in fact, a one city organisation with Southsiders only allowed in on weekdays, before 6.00 pm, on a leish
While what you say is not invalid, the very same thing can be said about Munster or Connaght.
NPU was founded by members of the old Dublin Pipers and it’s really only been a few years since it’s become this international body.
It’s original goals were to promote piping, by default, in Dublin. If you needed help with lessons or sourcing a set of pipes, you went to Dublin or one of the other pipers clubs in Walderstown, Belfast or Cork.
They would have loved to help out a new piper or pipe maker in Ulster or anywhere but they were chronically broke till the late 1990’s. And even today it doesn’t make sense to drag a piper from all over the country to give a 20 minute recital when there’s dozens of great pipers within a 15 mile radius.
Tiarnan O’Duinnchinn, John McSherry, Maurice Bradley, Cillian Vallely, Francis McIlduff, Daire Murphy, Jarlath Henderson, Patrick Davey, Barry Kerr, Ciarán MacFeidmhlimidh, Joe McHugh, Joe McLoughlin
Every one of these pipers have attended and availed of NPU sponsored and assited events. I know that some of them have been paid by NPU directly to perform and teach at various events in Ireland.
Of the 18 venues visited by the piperlink programme only two were up north - Leterkenny and Belfast.
One of the problems here is that the Arts Council of Ireland get pissy when their money is spent outside of the republic.
What NPU needs is people to get off their arses and stop moaning about nothing happening and organise events in Ulster to give Ulster pipers a stage for the peole of Ulster to see.
Here’s all the info you’ll need.
We are now considering the feasibility of taking Piperlink on tour outside of Ireland in autumn 2008 and in this regard we welcome expressions of interest from anyone or from someone who you could recommend who may be interested in assisting us to host a performance in your locality.
We have listed below the basic information which we will require in order to prepare an outline plan and would appreciate if you would give the matter consideration and revert to us at info@pipers.ie at your earliest convenience to register an expression of interest..
Name(s) of Local organiser(s) / Sponsor(s)
Past experience of organising similar events
Proposed Venue – Country, City, Venue
The minimum venue requirements for piperlink:-
8 channel desk with parametric eq and 2 seperate monitor mixes
1k Power amp
500w speakers
2 active monitors
6 Shure SM58 microphones with stands
1 DI box
Projector and screen
All associated leads etc.
Venue Capacity-
Likely Audience attendance for the concert –
Estimated box office receipts
Cost of venue hire
Estimated cost of local publicity
Will the venue provide a guaranteed fee
Will the venue agree a percentage split of the box office receipts and if so what split?
Typical per night hotel costs in the locality
In the event that there is sufficient interest we will prepare a funding application which will be required to be finalised in early February 2008
Please feel free to contact us with queries you may have in regard to the above.
This thread is an utter disgrace. Any thread where I am described as a “great piper” is an utter disgrace.
I did get a “great pipe” today though (Oooooohhhhr, Maytron!): Just took delivery of a Jim Wenham D chanter. Very nice stick.
If Northern People washed themselves more they might be invited into gentile Dublin circles more frequently.
In fairness to MacFeidmhlimidh, he made an effort when he played at the Breathnach night in Henrietta Street a couple of weeks ago (he’s no stranger to doing recitals there in fact; the chairman likes him or something). He had used a particularly fine conditioner in his hair which gave his quiff a distinct ‘flock of seagulls’ effect when he cranned. More of this sort of thing I say!
While I admire your valiant attempt to defend NPU’s position from the banks of the Missouri perhaps the climate in the midwest has affected your ability to engage in discourse in a resoned fashion.
What NPU needs is people to get off their arses and stop moaning about nothing happening and organise events in Ulster to give Ulster pipers a stage for the peole of Ulster to see.
Your appear to have totally missed the point.
As it happens tompipes, there are plenty of excellent events for pipers in the north, none more so than The William Kennedy Piping festival (arguably one of the finest piping festivals in Europe).
As I’m not a spokesperson for the festival I’ll let their website show how all encompassing and inclusive their organisers are. http://www.armaghpipers.com/wkpf/
I was not moaning about nothing happening in Ulster, I was merely asking this forum’s members if they had noticed NPU’s apparent attempts to exclude northern musicians from their calendar of events.
Fer feck sake man get a life and stop moaning aboot naff all.If NPU tried to satisfy every whimsical thought that came into oor brains they would get feck all done.Their track record on a global scale is good ,getting better.In case ye havnae realised sadly Ulster is still within the remit of the UK so technically doesnae belong to Ireland (even the Irish constitution has been amended to reflect that)it should by rights be treated no different to say America or anywhere else within the global family.The fact that it does treat quite favourably and without discrimination wi the North could leave the organisation open to the charge of favouritism o’er other countries.Is that what ye want..Numpty
Slán Agat
Uilliam
Robbie Hannan is the chairman there, Tiarnan O’Duinnchinn teaches at the Willie Clancy Summer School - the pipes classes there are organised by NPU. He also has played at the recital there which is also organised by NPU. Ciarán MacFeidmhlimidh recently played at the Brendan Breathnach night and Daragh Murphy featured on “A New Dawn” (if i remember the name correctly!) which was a CD of young pipers released by NPU. They also released a CD of Sean McAloon’s playing.
I know Cillian Vallely now lives in America so that would make it hard for him to play in dublin on a tuesday night.
