I just got back from visting NPU in Dublin for the first time and I have to get something off my chest…I needed directions to the NPU school , so I asked various music shops in the Dublin City Area..and come to find out..no person under the age of 35 has ever even heard of uilleann pipes!!!..and nobody has ever heard of NPU!!! Most of Irelands youths want to listen to electronic music. I am 27 and I have been listening to uilleann pipe music since I was 6. My question to you guys is..Does Uilleann pipes have a future in Ireland or will America and all the other Uilleann pipe " Crazed" Countries carry the burning torch???..your thoughts…
I dunno, I think that the pipes are alive and well in Ireland…look at Jarlath Henderson for instance. While they may not be as popular as U2 or Garth Brookes, they aren’t on the verge of disappearing.
More people than ever in history are inside ireland playing the pipes, and more people play them better than before too.
Most people you meet have never heard of them and don’t want to know, very likely. But you were in Dublin, silly diddly stuff is for culchies. 
I guess what i mean is irelands youth..one or two is ok..but is that enough?..Gay told me that NPU only has 30 to 35 active students a week..
Now, now, don’t tar us all with the one brush. I would even guess that on a per county basis, Dublin has more pipers than any other, mainly due to the location of NPU,
regards,
Mark.
I have five pupils every week and kids are being taught outside NPU everywhere. If you compare a summerschool like the Willie Clancy week with how it was say 25 years ago, first thing you notice is the flood of irish kids going to classes that weren’t to be seen before. And 35 a week, I went for a few lessons at Henrietta st in 1980, there was just myself and Sean Og Potts. So really I see no reason for pessimism.
Can you offer any explanation for this? It certainly has me stumped.
To me there seems to be a greater interest in traditional music than ever before, there are loads of very talented and committed young people taking up music, playing it well, approaching it with great enthusiasm, creativity and integrity.
That makes me think traditional music looks healthy and will for another while. It has never been for everyone so there’s no reason why pessimistic thoughts should occur when a lot of people have never heard of Na Piobairi Uilleann.
Perhaps this incident opened IP’s eyes to the fact that ITM is only a very small market in its home country. Would anyone in Ireland care to comment? It has always seemed to me that ITM is very much a fringe market in its own home, but I have not been there, so it would be good to get the perspective of people who live there.
Thx,
djm
perhaps he should have asked for comhaltas rather than npu.
‘Local CCE service-station, please’ That should do it
Double
(for those that don’t know, “culchie” is to Ireland as “Okee from Muskogee” or “hick” is to America).
Interesting thread. I can’t for the life of me determine how the experience led to the assumption made.
Given the number of pipers in the world, and not withstanding that Dublin is the center of the piping universe (well, it is), I’m not at all surprised that no one could direct the individual to NPU. How many non-pipers would have ever heard of NPU or pipes in the first place? The even more daunting task for the holiday traveller is to find the large RC cathedral in Dublin, a city where 80% or more are probably catholic. On my first of what have now been 8 trips to Ireland ove the past 7 years, no one knew where to send me to find the RC cathedral, some even tried to send me to St. Patrick’s cathedral, and I later discovered the cathedral accidentally.
I must say, however, that my advice to future travellers looking for NPU would be to rely on your own industriousness and navigating abilities:
- Know that NPU is on Henrietta Street
- Get a map and find Henrietta Street
- Determine your locale at the time you want to go to NPU
- Establish a route to Henrietta Street
- Start walking or driving
I would agree that piping is alive and well in Dublin and Ireland. I am astounded to know that 35 or more people would take lessons at NPU on a weekly basis. There must be 3-5 times that many pipers then. For a city of its size that would be an astounding number of pipers but the percapita number is still very low.
Ona related, albeit distant notion, my impression is that, particularly in Dublin, the Irish are becoming less Irish than ever before. The tendrils of the world have, for better or worse, grown into the cities and they are becoming much more cosmopolitan and more European with each passing day. Walk thru Dublin and you’ll see…just observe the young people, their dress, music, and attitudes. Much of this is due to a general lack of interest in real culture…the music, the art, the poetry, the language, the history. How many on the streets of Dublin know the likes of the grand artists such as McKelvey, Lavery, Craig, Henry or would recognize the names of some of the greatest musical exponents in the last century (in Drumshanbo 2 summers ago Mick O’Brien asked a class of about 20 under 17 year-old pipers to raise their hands if they knew who Leo Rowsome was and none of the arms went up), or of Synge and Beckett and countless other writers who so vividly recorded Irish life in written word a century ago in order to preserve the snapshot of the culture for study and benefit of future generations. Funding for culture (i.e., music art, etc) is down and funding for other social programs is way up. I’m not saying that people in Ireland should not have progressed with advances in technology, or that Ireland should not have become electrified, or that the citizens should still be ruled by the church, or live as the Aran Islanders used to live, or anything like that. I’m just relating that I see less interest in the culture and history of the land as time goes by and the extraneous influences of the world lure and grab hold of the inhabitants. It is a changed place in the past 7 years. I love the country and its people and applaud some of the changes but must lament some of the others, and especially, the anticipated changes if the EU constitution becomes ratified wherein the citizens of Ireland will be subjected to laws that supercede those of their own design after so much great struggle in the last century to become soverign in the first place. Then again, change is definite and “extinction” of an organism or culture is guaranteed if it does not adapt to change appropriately and in a timely fashion but also if one makes anticipatory adaptive responses to change that prove to be non robust.
Good advice, Doc.
I found 15 Henrietta a few years ago by that method - and walked quite a bit of it - and along the way found a couple of nice pubs (one with my family name on it) and a nice antique shop as well, where I purchased a couple of old, framed photos.
That was back in the day that Liam McNulty was running the show, and he was very welcoming, and he gave us (the wife & myself) a nice tour.
I think the best explanation is that you were in Dublin. Which is a city I usualy skip when I’m in Ireland.
Dionys
Pity the poor English. If they had only known that the fastest way to corrupt and conquer the Irish was to overwhelm them with international culture, commerce and prosperity, the world would be a much different place today. 
djm
Guys, I think your taking things the wrong way..I am not making assumptions, and I am not being pessimistic..I simply asked a question..I wanted to hear some other people thoughts on the topic I brought forward. I am glade to hear that they are more young pipers out there and that the piping scene countinues to grow..
Gay told me that NPU only has 30 to 35 active students a week..
Thats not a bad number considering that 70/80 years ago that probably all there was in the world.
But thats the weekly attendance for NPU alone.
When you consider that there are a good few pipers learning at local CCE branches and private lessons from friends and relations. Plus there is a lot of begining pipers in Ireland that don’t do regular lessons at all. Like pipers here, they’ll just try and get to weekend and week long workshops during the year and get all their tuition then.
There are definitly more pipers now than at any other point in history. Even so it still is a minority sport. Irish traditional music in general is too.
It is probably fair to say that most Irish people don’t like Irish music. Not because it’s unlikeable (we all know its likeable) but they have never been exposed to it in a proper way.
With the exception of a few places Irish music sessions in pubs only exist to attract tourists.
Mind you a good friend of mine had a regular Saturday night session in Slatterys pub on Grand Canal St. in Dublin.
One night it was packed and as usual no-one was listening to the music and the crowd was noisier than usual. At the end of the night he went to get the few quid from the bar manager and he asked why do you bother having music here, it cost you money and no-one listens?
The manager replied, “Youse are cheaper than a bouncer and the music keeps the scum-bags out”
Tommy
In 1971/72 part of Liam O’Flynn’s spiel at his recitals included the remark that the “future of uilleann piping looks dubious, at best” and he mentioned that there were only two or three makers alive (Dan O’Dowd and ??). Certainly in America, there were just a handful of immigrant pipers. And although the Bettystown pictures show a gaggle of pipers, there probably weren’t too many more in Ireland.
A few notable people fueled the revival with their enthusiasm and persistance (not to mention shaky lifestyle choices) for the next two decades until piping and pipemaking had found its footing. Thanks for doing that, BTW.
There is no question in my mind that the health of uilleann piping is largely a function of the state of uilleann pipe making. Everytime a maker has raised the bar on quality, production times, and cost, we all benefit by having a better crop of new pipers around to give us a kick in the pants.
Okay, I’m rambling. It’s election day and I’m nervous. I think I know the cure for that…
Eric
Vote twice? 
djm