Pat D’Arcy found this in the NPU archive.
Does anyone have close-up photos of Ennis’s pipes?
I think this one’s my fav 
PD.
Ah 1983
Careful now Pat or I’ll have to go looking for dirt on yourself
Jaysus, Ennis looks rough in that shot.
Peter, had you injured your foot in an australian rules football match?
More of this sort of thing! There are some blinders in that archive. 
Regards,
Harry.
Just wondering Peter ,what were Ennis,s pipes like to play in regards to playablity and such ??
RORY
How can I put this nicely… lessee… I am fecking envious. 
I played the Seamus Ennis pipes many times when I was staying with him and Liam O’Flynn. I also made reeds and replaced his old leather bag with a plastic (naugahyde) one. Seamus used to joke about hunting the wild Nauga
ripping off its sking and making pipes bags. Later on an instructed young Paddy Keenan on how to make a bag and he still makes and plays them to this day.
Seamus’ pipes were brutal to play. The bellows leaked like a sive, even though Seamus had filled it full of cooking grease. The new bag helped somewhat but they were still in tough shape. I tried to coax him into letting me dis-assemble them a staunch the parts to make them play easier but he would just say “there’s enough air for a MAN’S set of pipes”, and laugh it off.
One interesting note: the drone reeds were waxed in by Seamus’ father in the early 1900’s… still going strong after all those years. They were also dark with cigarette smoke. I know that this added to the tone.
All the best,
pat sky