Category: Letters

Irish Pipers and the Spanish Civil War/ Ross’s Xmas Song

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Reader Alastair MacGregor on ‘Irish Pipers and the Spanish Civil War’: ‘I nearly choked on my cornflakes last week when l saw the request for information on the Irish pipers who fought for Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War. ‘There can be many reasons for historical research – lets hope it’s not based on ambivalence or indifference. I’m not surprised there is difficult in tracking down relatives. I’d be…

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Editor’s Notebook: Oban and Inverness/ Irish in Spain/ MacDonald Search / Lorient Poster/ Eagle Pipers 1969

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I hope that the new, early registration rule for senior pipers works in cutting down the numbers at Oban and Inverness. (Entries in the Former Winners’ MSR, Clasp and Senior Piobaireachd need to be in by January 31 next year.) However I suspect most of those pipers who qualify will enter anyway and ‘see how they feel about competing’ nearer the time. Most will, of course, play; but a few…

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St. Mary’s Anti-Communist Pipe Band and a Sojourn to Spain in Support of General Franco

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On Monday we carried a request from a reader in Spain for information regarding the visit of an Irish band to Spain in 1937. We are grateful to Dublin-based piper Ronan Maguire for alerting us to the following information about the band and their controversial trip…… According to an article in ‘Dublin Life and Culture Magazine’ the majority of Irishmen who fought in the Spanish Civil War did so on…

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Rare Picture, Campbells of Kilberry and the Founding of the Piobaireachd Society

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Together the two individuals in the above image helped change the course of piping history. Can you guess who they are? The handsome woman on the left is Lady Elspeth Campbell, and on the right John Campbell, Kilberry. I am indebted to his great-grandson, also John, and now the Piping Steward at the Argyllshire Gathering, for forwarding the photograph from his family collection. By Robert Wallace ‘It shows Lady Elspeth…

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Editor’s Notebook: ‘Missing’ Majors/ Irish in Spain/ Split Stock / Wiltshire Piper/ Edinburgh Police Solos

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Thanks to the many readers who have contributed to the debate on the RSPBA’s ‘missing Majors’. I agree with much of what has been said, in particular that the Association need to be pro-active in encouraging Cowal and the All Ireland promoters to help out. They may already have been in touch, I don’t know. With only the Worlds and the Scottish secure for next summer, we should not be…

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