History: A Second Hand Set of Pipes Spawned Ireland’s Famous Fintan Lalor Pipe Band

Over the last year or so I have completed short history projects on famous Northern Ireland bands such as Ballycoan, St Patrick’s Donaghmore, Robert Armstrong Memorial and the Pipes and Drums of the RUC. We have mentioned the various exploits of another band from the island of Ireland, the Fintan Lalor band in Piping Press over the months and years, but this series will be the first pulling together of…

International Piper Lives Again as Part of Piping Centre Project/ Ontario Composing Contest

Following the success of its crowdfunding project to digitise the back issues of Piping Times and Piping Today magazines, Finlay MacDonald, the National Piping Centre’s Director of Piping, has announced a new target to allow them to add Captain John MacLellan’s magazine the ‘International Piper’ to the endeavour. The new aim is to garner £33,500. The NPC have already raised £31,000 in just two weeks. Finlay said: ‘The generosity of…

Ten Years After: The World Pipe Band Championhips of 2011 – Part 3

We conclude our editor’s reports from the Worlds in 2011 with a detailed review of the Grade 1 Medley and some general thoughts on the competition…. Tunes are back. This was the first, most noticeable feature of the medley competition. For many, certainly the top two in this discipline, out were the old hand-knitted variety of ‘composition’ and in were the Hen’s March and Train Journey North and other traditional…

Ten Years After: The World Pipe Band Championship of 2011, Part 2

We take another look at the Worlds held at Glasgow Green in August 2011 with photographs and excerpts from reports from our Editor Robert Wallace. Here he concentrates on the Grade 1 March Strathspey and Reel. Gradually you came to the realisation that there was not one person present who did not believe they were listening to the 2011 World Pipe Band Champions. For Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, from…

Review of Online Bagpipe Music Book: ‘The Fyrish Collection’ by Niall Matheson

The title of the book comes from Fyrish Hill (Cnoc Fhaoighris, in Gaelic), near Evanton in Easter Ross. On the cover is the depiction of a summit monument built in 1782 on the orders of the laird, General Sir Hector Munro of Novar, who had served in India. At the time the population was being expelled from the land in favour of sheep and human survival was a under threat….