Start a pipers club. It only takes 1 to get the ball rolling.
I assume you’re already aware of these folks, but I realize they’re all far far to the north of you. There’s a piper that lives in Key West also…still a bit of a hike from your location.
http://www.floridairishpipers.org/
Rather than going for a session in a Pub as a start, I’d recommend finding someone who wants to play tunes and just get together at your house for an afternoon. Who knows after a while you might find a second person who’s interested and next thing you know you have a session.
We’ve had similar experiences trying to find a Pub for our session, even the ones representing themselves as “Irish” don’t want traditional music. (e.g. “Don’t you guys know Whiskey in the Jar?”) When we were between pubs, we had our session in my kitchen for several months.
Best of luck.
-gary
Thanks for the suggestions. Infrequently, (fiddler) James Kelly will come over, or we’ll converge at his place if his brother is in town. It looks like we (himself, and a few others) might try to meet quarterly. 
That’d be a nice start!