Author: Gilbert Cromie

Northern Ireland’s Pipe Bands Return to Action

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Toward the end of May 2021 the NI Executive announced that bands could undertake static outdoor practices (although no singing was allowed) and this was embraced enthusiastically by the majority of the country’s seven hundred bands. Week by week individual bands or band forums were showing photographs of bands at practice in all sorts of environments from car parks to farm yards in order to stick to the rules. Pipe…

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The Final Chapter in the History of Ireland’s Famous Fintan Lalor Pipe Band

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Pipe Major Finbarr Connolly, who hailed from Cork, was the first non-Dubliner to lead the band when he succeeded Pipe Major Tim J Keogh in 1976. P/M Connolly held the post for over two decades during which time the band would appear to have experienced considerable ups and downs. They competed regularly in Grade 2 and would often play up in the Open Grade competing against bands such as the…

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Pipe Band History: Fintan Lalor Enjoy Success Under P/M Tim Keogh

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Pipe Major Tim Keogh, who had held the Pipe Sergeant position for a number of years took over the leadership of the band in 1953. Tim was an accomplished piper and violinist. He was also a gifted composer with one of his tunes, The One and Only, being dedicated to his former Pipe Major, Paddy Solan. This was a time when competition within Ireland was getting stronger with the Ballycoan…

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Fints are Instrumental in Formation of All Ireland Championships Created in 1946

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We continue with part three of our history of the famous Fintan Lalor Pipe Band from the south of Ireland. Few of the bands from Northern Ireland, outside of the small number that competed in the Oireachtas or Feis events in Southern Ireland, would have ever have seen or heard the Fintan Lalor in action. However they most certainly would have heard them on the radio as they had broadcast…

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Irish Citizen Army Restore Fintan Lalor With Funds from Leading Republicans and USA

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We continue with part two of the history of one of Ireland’s most famous bands, Fintan Lalor, Dublin. In 1918 the Army Council of the Irish Citizen Army decided to reactivate the Fintan Lalor with Stephen Murphy as pipe major and in the council’s correspondence the title ‘Irish Citizen Army Pipers’ Band’ is used as much as the original one. An appeal for funds in 1919 brought donations from public…

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