Category: History

News from Across the Water: Piper of the Year/ Solo Piping & Drumming Champs./ New Leading Drummers

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Saturday, September 28th saw the annual Piper of the Year competition in the Adair Arms, Ballymena. There was a decent attendance to listen to the eleven invited pipers who competed in the afternoon in the Piobaireachd section and then in the evening’s MSR and Hornpipe and Jig. The pipers played in the following order: Andrew Pattison, James Frazer, John McElmurry, Alastair Donaghy, Andrew Nelson, Kris Coyle, James Stone, Marc Warnock, Scott…

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Legendary Boys Brigade Company Honoured with a Civic Reception in Home City

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Last Friday my old Boys Brigade Company, the 214th Glasgow, was honoured with a Civic Reception from the city to mark 100 years since the company’s founding. It was held in the City Chambers off George Square. Glasgow has deserved much of the recent criticism of its roads, litter, shop closures…but you cannot complain about the City Chambers. If you have never visited you must. There won’t be finer marble…

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Dr Hugh Parker Dinwoodie, General Practitioner, Piper and Climber

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Born on this day in 1930, Dr Dinwoodie, who died last year, was a member of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society and a lifelong supporter of the Piobaireachd Society. This touching tribute was written by his son Colin….. There is never a good time to begin writing of a parents’ passing, and until now I have felt unable to keep pace with life and prepare this for my father, a…

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Editor’s Notebook: Search for Silver MacDougalls/ Ian Plunkett/ Captain John Contest/ Letters

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Dr Katherine Macaulay: ‘I recently read an article by you on ‘History of the Scottish Piping Society of London; The Post War Years’ written in 2016. In the article you mentioned Lewis Beaton Memorial Pipes … but, sadly, the actual pipes have disappeared somewhere along the timeline. Apparently they were actually Lewis Beaton’s silver mounted MacDougalls. Where are they now? ‘My father is Iain Macaulay, nephew to, and taught the pipes by,…

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Northern Ireland Piper of the Year Results and Comment

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When, in the early 80s, I first ventured to a then much-Troubled Northern Ireland there was a decided paucity of piobaireachd in the Province. Few played it; pipe bands scorned it. A small ember of hope remained thanks to the oxygen of interest from the likes of Norman Dodds and Ken Stewart. What a lonely furrow they ploughed. Undaunted, their efforts, and that of teachers such as Andrew Wright and,…

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