There is one person that has not been mentioned yet.
Heather Clarke
She must have got more people playing Uilleann pipes than anybody 
David
There is one person that has not been mentioned yet.
Heather Clarke
She must have got more people playing Uilleann pipes than anybody
Fair point Davy!
When was the last time Paddy Moloney or Liam OâFlynn taught a class.
I donât mean to disrespect them at all but they just donât teach, at least very often.
They have done tonnes to popularise the instrument but I do think that itâs the teachers on the ground that should get some credit too. Heather Clarke being one.
Tommy
God
SlĂĄn Go Foill
Uilliam
ps with a lot of help frae NPU 
When was the last time Paddy Moloney or Liam OâFlynn taught a class.
My own early influences were Liam OâFlynn & the Paddy Moloney via the records and Dan OâDowd in person, but although I canât tell you the LAST time Liam OâFlynn taught a class, I do remember going to Ilkley a few years back and being taught for an hour along with another bunch of practice set owners by Liam. He introduced us to popping and his slidey C natural
just my 2p
Djimbo.
Teachers and organizers are influential to be sure, but like Bill H, I have to give a second for the economy. In politics, the saying goes âitâs the economy, stupidâ (when the question is âwhat motivates the electorateâ).
Without disposable income and a broad base of consumers, all of the great teachers and organizers in the world could not usher in the âgolden age.â There have been great pipers, teachers, and organizers in the past, but the difference is in the economic situations that allow pipers to be pipersânamely disposable income and leisure time. Look at it this way: If we were all broke, had large families, and had to work day and night just to feed the family, we would have neither the time, money, nor the inclination to be having this discussion even, much less drop the cash for a set of cantankerous pipes.
Angelaâs Ashes, Braveheart (remember, had more UP in it than the Highland pipes), Riverdance, Celtic woman, and the like seem to broaden the base of people encountering the pipes (through the prism of Irish, or more generically âcelticâ culture), while the great players, teachers, makers, and organizers focus that broadened base on this instrument we love, and the fine traditions that surround it.
âBlake
my vote is for:
Finbar Furey.
Those 2 Nonesuch albums were gone before they hit the shelf.
AND were very cool things to have between your Fairport Convetion and Miles Davis LPâs.
and
Keenan. He tapped the whole âceltic hippieâ market.
These 2 musicians brought Uilleann piping âto the massesâ; i.e. listeners who may not have searched UP out of its own accord; or were previously unfamiliar with OâFlynn + Moloney. After Furey + Keenan, they certainly were. IMHO.
http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1S8yvzGHo
I will take the UP when Iâm OK with my tinwhistle 
BTW, what is that jig they played first, before John Ryanâs polka?
I agree: Paddy Maloney, Liam OâFlynn, Paddy Keenan. I grew up with my dadâs Chieftains, Planxty, and Bothy Band albums (on vinyl!). I also grew up with Seamus Ennis and Willie ClancyâŚalthough they probably werenât as known to the masses yet then. I also agree with the mention of Breathnach and Dan OâDowd. Even though Iâd never heard of them until later, they were behind the scenes of the whole thing, laying the groundwork. AlsoâŚLeo Rowsome since he made the pipes that the first 3 were playing and taught so many to play.
I wonder what the view will be another 30-40 years from nowâŚthe ones weâve been mentioning will just be mythic, and there will probably be another cast of influential characters, just as these guys were proceeded by Cash, Early, Canon Goodman, âPiperâ Jackson, Capt. Kelly etc.
Bill is being characteristically modest in his obiter dicta. The diasporate makers have been particularly important in applying a scientific, methodical approach to rediscovering the understanding of the subtleties of pipe-making that had largely been lost by the middle of the twentieth century, just before the revival got going. I donât want to belittle the importance of people like Matt Kiernan or Dan OâDowd in keeping a very tenuous thread of pipe-making going, but I think they relied mainly on accurate imitation rather than a scientific understanding.
It was good to see the recognition given to the piping diaspora (including those with no organic links to Ireland) in the most recent issue of An PĂobaire. But, as Bill points out, rootedness in the culture of the green and musty isle is also an essential need for the longer-term continuation of the present golden age.
PS Bill, Iâll be in touch soon The pipes, the pipes are calling, and from here theyâre sounding pretty low and mellifluous.
The success of riverdance for the first few years rests firmly on the shoulders of Micheal Flatley. The show has toured all over the world and has played to millions of people . People who had never heard of Uilleann pipes were exposed to the instrument via Spillane and others and were instantly hooked .
Many of the names afore menstioned were important but only in Ireland and the pipers that travelled only reached a tiny percentage that riverdance reached.
Micheal Flatley was indirectly responsible for bring Uilleann pipes to a world audience and now we have pipers in every country on the planet.
RORY
I bet we donât.Rory given all the questions ye ask can we look forward to ye finishing yer dissy-tation on the subject of uilleann pipes soon??my bad of course I meant dissertation
SlĂĄn Go Foill
Uilliam
Hm, Well I live about 6,000 miles from Ireland, yet Davy Spillane and Michael Flatleyâs riverdance had no bearing on my discovery of the uilleann pipes.
I would say Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains had the biggest impact with bringing the pipes (as well as Irish trad anyways) to new eyes all around the world aside from Ireland, then Planxty and The Bothy Band as a close second. I would say this simply because of how long the Chieftains have been around, some 45 years now. I donât think MFâs Riverdance has been around that long so how could they have impacted more people? I donât know but, something to think about I guess. Iâm not arguing MF isnât known, but I feel the Chieftains have done more for the rest of the world (again aside from Ireland) in opening eyes than MF.
I,m sure Uilliamâs making a good point ,I just wish I knew what it was .
RORY
If credit should go anywhere, it should go to the producers of the show, John McColgan and Moya Doherty.
& Bill Gates
Yep one and the same
Rory ifn ye donât know then I guess it will be the dissy version.
The title of this thread is a wee bit negative methinks, blame betokens wrangdoing
If it is the correct Title then it is definately God and Bill Gates and of course twinkle toes who thinks he is Gods gift anyways.
SlĂĄn Go Foill
Uilliam
which one of those two choreographed the dancers to sync up with the pre-recorded tap-track? 
I donât know anything about the situation in Ireland, but the situation here in the US is pretty much as Rory implies.
I started in the mid-1970âs and was inspired by Paddy Moloney, Liam O Flynn, Paddy Keenan, and Finbar Furey. I had albums of all of these before 1980.
Though these inspired me, they didnât seem to inspire many others.
I spent decades as the only uilleann piper in the area. I would get calls from people expressing interest in the pipes a couple times a month.
Then two things hit the American publicâs awareness at about the same time:
Riverdance and Braveheart.
Suddenly, instead of two calls a month, I was getting a half-dozen calls a week. Sometimes several a day. It seemed like thousands of Americans had suddenly âdiscoveredâ the uilleann pipes and were hot to get a set.
These people, used to the factories-to-wholesale-to-retail nature of the normal music industry, could not comprehend that there was no place on the planet that they could walk in and buy a set.
I tried to explain that there were only about a dozen makers (which was, as far as I could tell, the case at that time) and that a maker could take a month to make a full set. 12 x 12 = 144 sets, the entire world production of uilleann pipes per year. I might get that many calls from people looking for pipes in a month!
So I would say the biggest impact was by Eric Rigler (and of course the composer who hired him, and the director and producer who hired the composer) and next the piper in Riverdance (and the guy who composed the music and hired the piper).
Funny, the summer before Braveheart there were two or three movies that used uilleann pipes in the soundtrack, Rob Roy, The Field, and perhaps a third. Maybe these prepared the American audience for the pipes in Braveheart, who can say?
But it was the dual and cross-fertilising impact of Braveheart and Riverdance that put the pipes on the map for most Americans.
If it hasnât been mentioned yet, the movie about the sinking of the Titanic had a big influence too.
I had several calls about the UPs after that showed in the theaters.
Funny thing about Braveheart: when I list that film as one that has uilleann pipes throughout (and no GHB pipes at all if I recall) most people assumed they were hearing Scottish (GHB) pipes in that soundtrack. After all, it is a movie about Scotland.
We have so much work to do 
t