It is with considerable sadness that we report the sudden passing of our Northern Ireland pipe band correspondent John Kelly. He was 71 and had been very active right up to his passing. John’s last dispatch, on a Burns Supper at Titanic Belfast, featured on PP only yesterday. In it John, from Lisburn, was photographed showing no sign of illness. His passing has shocked the Northern Irish pipe band community…

The Ulster-Scots Agency Juvenile Pipe Band are pictured below against the backdrop of the world famous Titanic staircase after performing at ‘Burns by the Lagan’ at the Titanic Belfast.  Included are Keith Gamble (Chairman of Ulster-Scots Agency), Andy McGregor (Pipe Major), David Gilliland (Ulster-Scots Community Network Operations Director) and Ian Crozier (Chief Executive Officer, Ulster-Scots Agency).

By Mrs Wendy Goodall I read your article about music tuition in Scottish schools.  Funnily enough, it is our 10-year-old daughter Kirsten Goodall who features in the picture issued about piping-in the haggis this morning (above). Kirsten is a P6 pupil at Cockenzie Primary School in East Lothian where she is learning to play the pipes in a scheme backed by the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust [SSPDT]. I read the…

It is pleasing to see that the Scottish Government’s Education Committee has ruled that music tuition in our schools should be provided free of charge to pupils, writes the Editor. Pleasing, but unless the administration puts money where it matters it will just be another blast of well meaning hot air. It is a fact that pupils learning a musical instrument, and that includes pipers and drummers, do better at…