A volunteer organization with dues paying members that’s dependent on a £50,000 grant from the goverment? Where’s all that going, is this on a year to year basis?
Kevin, that info is available fom NPU, but I think a chunk goes to paying salaries for two full-time staff, building maintenance, new projects, etc. As a member, you have every right to demand an accounting if you think you have been cheated in some way.
djm
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Royce..So I take it that ye have demanded that NPU print a full apology for printing yer photograph in this Aprils An Piobaire(Vol 4 Iss20 page 10) and using yer name and that of the Great Northern Pipers??? 
Who or what is this extremely dishonest and unreliable fraud roaming the Belfast Area???Bit vague and I’m sure as you have mentioned it we would all like to know what you are talking about.!!! 
Are ye in for 20$? 
Liam
Liam,
Don’t get into the stuff about “characters” round belfast. It’s been done to death and a recent post was deleted by Dale as inappropriate for this board.
In response to some of Royce’s other comments I will just say that the art of piping was, and always will be, an aural tradition and no amount of books will ever get you up to scratch. What NPU did was to create the means for me, as a foreigner, to get that one to one support from pipers who were part of that aural chain back to the master pipers of the 19th century. That makes me have a vested interest in their work continuing.
Ken
Just to clear up NPU’s Arts grant funding for this year. In their appeal for support article they claimed that their Arts grant was being reduced by 50,000, which they said represented a 40% reduction in their main source of revenue. This implies if my maths is correct that the total grant is 125,000. Take off 40% (i.e. 50,000) and this leaves a total of 75,000 which they were paid by the Arts Council. Hope this clears things up a little as most people seem to be under the impression (from what I’ve been reading) that the Arts Council has totally cut their grant for this year,
regards,
Mark.
Not true, I have reeded up good and bad work by the same respected maker/s. Stuff that really isn’t playable still finds itself in the hands of people who are adamant that the item they have is great because of the name of the maker. So a “crap” chanter seems to me to be in the eye/ear of the beholder quite often, and doesn’t always “die the death” like maybe it should.
Alan
I love Royce! He pisses so many people off with his ranting and raving. In between the wild assumptions and allegations, he also has some good points, but tends to miss everyone else’s.
Nonetheless, his entertainment value is good for many more threads to come, I’m sure. I look forward to his next diatribe.
djm
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How many words a minute can you type Royce? I need a secretary that has time to type this many words… bleedin hell… life is too short.
PD.
Royce… what exactly is your point?
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Tony, Uilliam, Royce posted a very long diatribe about how a certain person in Ireland agreed to reed and adjust a chanter for him. Royce says this person accepted the chanter and payment for the work, and never returned said chanter, but was seen by Royce’s friends playing the same chanter in public two years later. When Royce’s friends made noises about getting the chanter back for him, they were warned off that this individual and cronies were extremely violent, and that Royce’s friends’ lives would be in jeopardy if they pursued the matter.
The administrator of this board chose to lock the post, and then to remove it altogether.
This is what Royce is referring to. He is upset about getting hosed, and about receiving no support from NPU, who apparently don’t want to get knifed, either.
This is what I find so funny about Royce’s last long post, where he tells us about the noble tradition of music outside of NPU and CCÉ, and the inherent evil of musical dilettentes like NPU. These outsiders he refers to are the very tinkers who ripped him off in the first place. There were some very good reasons why they were excluded from the formation of NPU, but this all seems to be lost on Royce. Also lost on him seems to be the fact that these wonderful people who practise ITM outside NPU couldn’t give a tinker’s damn whether any of us learn UPs.
All Royce has done is confirm in my mind the valuable service NPU has provided me, and I am still firmly committed to supporting them within my humble means.
djm
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Royce I sympathise with your loss ,thats really shite,but what the hell has it got to do with NPU?
Its a tough old world out there and ye got caught…
Now can we get back to my post which wasn’t intended to be an opportunity for Royce to re ramble on and on and on…
Anymore pledges?? 
Slan go foill
Liam
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djm,
I know of Royce’s dilema from Heatnet board. I was floored with the comments made there that got him ejected, (right or wrong) sometimes… how you say something is more important than what you say. Tact isn’t one of Royce’s strong points.
I read the locked post prior to it’s deletion (and thought to myself oh no, he’s doing it again)
I’ve been to his website and heard sound samples (love the YoSalaam tune)
Royce,
You have an EXCELLENT ability to connect people who have nothing to do something and make them scapegoats for non-participation (right?)
The moderators of this board offer it’s services to share and exchange information about (primarily) whistles, flutes and pipes. I don’t believe they’re connected to the Uilleann police. If an Irish Mafia exists (as djm elucidates) then perhaps it’s best to back off and let things be.
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Maybe that was my point. Thanks.
Royce
Royce, absolutely agree with you that there is a tradition outside NPU. But since they don’t care about me, I don’t care about them. I look to those who make pipes and piping available to me, and that’s NPU. That’s why I support them. It costs, sure, what did you expect, but then again, this (UPs) is never going to be more than a hobby for 99% of the people involved, so let’s get a grip.
I’m sorry you or anyone gets burned from time to time. I don’t understand why the moderator took that one down, either. Personally, I appreciate that you published the offender’s name. I, too, have been hosed by a pipemaker of some repute in Ireland, but I don’t expect any more from the rest of the users of this board or from NPU other than that we all have an interest in playing UPs, are envious of those who can do it better, or have nicer instruments, and would love to find any means possible to make the process of learning easier.
Beyond that, I’m not too worried about an international brotherhood, or an unwritten moral code, or ethical standard, or support beyond what any individual chooses to make on their own. Lighten up! Enjoy it for what it’s worth!
djm