Tom Anderson, from Paisley, Scotland, was posted to Dublin by his employer in the late 1960s and he was engaged by the St. Patrick’s Donaghmore Pipe Band to become their Pipe Major and tutor. He had been the Pipe Major of the Renfrew, later British Caledonian Airways, Pipe Band. Whilst in Ireland he became All Ireland (1971 and 1978) and Ulster (1980) Solo Piping Champion. For a short time before…

In 1951 the SPBA NI Branch came into existence and while the majority of competing bands in Northern Ireland had joined it, St Patrick’s along with most of the bands from the Cookstown, Dungannon and Omagh areas, remained with the Northern Ireland Band Association. In 1951 the band won Grade 4 at the Cookstown Young Farmers Club contest at Loughery Grounds, Cookstown. The band must have joined the SPBA NI…

After the Second World War the band recruited Pipe Major Harry Sawyers as their tutor and this led to great success through the decade and into the 1950s. In addition to the successes he achieved with the band, of equal importance was his ability as a teacher to improve the tuning and playing techniques of the band’s many young members. This tutelage would prove paramount during the decades that followed….

During the 1960s and 70s the Robert Armstrong Memorial Pipe Band dominated the Irish pipe band scene with one of their main rivals being St Patrick’s, Donaghmore. While both bands have long since departed the scene the Belfast-based RAMS as they were known remain revered with a considerable amount of information available compared to that of the St Patrick’s band who in their day were also trail blazers. During the lockdown I contacted…

On Thursday past the Northern Ireland Pipe Band community was stunned when news filtered through of the tragic death of 17-year-old Drum Major Rachel Lowry in a traffic accident which occurred near Markethill, County Armagh. Rachel was studying Health and Social Care at the Southern Regional College’s Armagh Campus having achieved excellent GCSE results at her local Markethill High School.  A rising star, Rachel was one of a growing number…