Jim Lavin

Uilleann Pipes
1

My first post ……….

Does any one know what happened to Jim Lavin? I bought his cassette 'Ceol Na Mala’ about 15 years ago and I’ve recently found a bit of info here ………

http://www.roscommonarts.com/trad/archive/Roscommon%20Archive%20on-line/archivejimlavin.htm

but that’s about it.

2

It looks like he played a Taylor set of pipes. Reg keys look like they might have been customized too.

T

3

Not so sure it’s a Taylor. Who was it made the keys on Touhey’s set (Mike Carney?) ? The flared keys (although not the same) and chanter mounts are very reminiscent of this set:

http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?t=34424&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Pictures still available at http://www.uilleannobsession.com:

Here’s a photo from the NPU archive of his brother Paddy Lavin (he could make his chanter talk you know). Paddy used to play with Mike Carney… hmm…

The last mention I can find of him is in a letter from Sean McKiernan to NPU about Andy Conroy’s funeral which Jim attended. It’s in An Piobaire Vol. 4 No. 2 September 1999.

Pat.

4

Is it just me or does anyone else find it interesting that 3 of the 4 pipers in the last picture are playing left handed?

5

It caught my attention too, (especially since I play left-handed) because of all the photos of groups of pipers that I’ve seen, usually it’s the 3 out of 4 that are right-handed pipers. Go figure.

6

Not often we see a piper in a wheelchair, either.

7

I thought Tom was ciotógach, hence the photo is reversed. Guess not.

Believe the Lavins played sets Carney built. In Tom Johnson’s entry for Ceol an mhále he says “uilleann pipes by Michael Carney.”

8

Reading about other Roscommoners at that site, I see they profile a couple of other pipers: first, Tom Armstrong. This is a Coyne set (!):

He was the piper who was a big influence on the young Liam O’Flynn.

Here’s Miko Padian:

Dunno about the pipes but that looks like a “reform” model of German flute.

Scandalous that they omitted Andy and Mick Conroy, but a nice site nonetheless.

9

at least 3 photographs are reversed, I think

10

I met Jim Lavin a couple of times between 1995-98. He told me his pipes were the set formerly played by his brother Pat, who reversed the set for being played right-handed before he died. He said the pipes were “thought to be a Taylor set”, but he didn’t seem to be too sure if they really were.