A set of pipes said to have been recovered from the fallen body of a hero piper at the Battle of the Somme have been sold at auction to an unnamed buyer for £4,600. After tax and commission the true cost will be over £5,000. The sale was carried out by Lockdales in Ipswich, East Anglia. The pipes, with an original reserve price of only £800, are believed to have…

The committee of the gathering report: ‘As a result of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, Braemar Royal Highland Charity and the organising committee of the Braemar Gathering have decided to take the difficult but necessary decision to cancel this year’s event. ‘Whilst we know the decision will be disappointing for many, we feel it is the right one to protect the safety of the local community, competitors, spectators and officials many…

Organiser Margaret Dunn has sent this: Below is a link to the CLASP announcement of two new remote competitions. The first competition date announced is for 20th June – which will end 2019/2020 CLASP season. The second competition date is 8th August . This remote competition will replace the annual ‘World Solo Amateur Piping Competition’ at Piping Live, which runs as part of Glasgow International Piping Festival and traditionally starts each CLASP…

I had a good corps at St Joseph’s and we were in Grade 1 but we’d lost a lot of pipers and we struggled for three or four years  until 1998, playing locally in the All Irelands and at the Worlds a couple of times. We didn’t do so well, always around the bottom.  Then Johnny Keogh left the O’Tooles and Dean Hall from Australia took over and one night…