Category: Pipe Bands

Editor’s Notebook: George Stoddart and the Edinburgh Tattoo/ Piping Live/ Chanter Mate/ Solo Contests

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Another great disappointment of this summer, particularly for tourists, is the cancellation of the Edinburgh Tattoo, largely because of the lack of insurance cover. It set me on a rake through the PP archive and I discovered an interesting cutting from the Scotsman newspaper from August 1970. It features P/M George Stoddart, the Tattoo’s first ‘Lone Piper’. It reads: ‘Back with the old crowd is George Stoddart, for many years…

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Bombs and Threats of Violence and The Day Red Hackle Pipe Band Saved the Venice Film Festival

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Following the recent passing of piper Colin Murray, Hector Russell, a friend of his from their Red Hackle days, has been in touch about trips they made with the band. The first three foreign excursions by the Hackle under the leadership of P/M John Weatherston, affectionately known as ‘wee Jock’, were to Venice and to Brittany and Le Mont-Dore in France. These adventures were somewhat diverse in their purpose. 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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Glasgow’s Piping Live! Confirmed for 2021

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Piping Live! is back for 2021 with a nine-day festival packed full of world-class performances, music sessions, recitals, competitions, book launches, workshops and so much more, writes press officer Hannah Innes.  Taking place between the 7th and 15th August 2021, the annual festival has confirmed they will present their programme online, in response to current government guidelines. However, if restrictions allow the team will do all they can to introduce a live audience element…

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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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