Welcome – The Archive Blog
Welcome to the Na Píobairí Uilleann Archive Blog. This blog will regularly showcase material in the NPU Archive that may be of particular interest to uilleann pipers and traditional music enthusiasts.
The NPU Archive contains a wide range of physical and digital materials that relate to uilleann piping and the Irish traditional arts in general.
The Na Píobairí Uilleann Library contains approximately 3,000 books acquired through both purchase and donation. The Library is located on the first floor of NPU’s headquarters at 15 Henrietta Street in Dublin.
The major focus of the collection is Irish traditional music. Highlights of the collection include signed editions of books by Francis O’Neill and WH Grattan Flood.
The NPU audio collection is focused on uilleann piping. The collection spans the entire recording era with examples of piping performances on commercial cylinder, phonographic disc, reel-to-reel, vinyl, cassette, DAT, CD and a range of digital formats.
The earliest physical examples in the collection are commercial cylinder recordings of pipers James C. McAuliffe (c.1899) and William N. Andrews (c.1913).
The phonographic record collection contains material released between 1917 and 1949 and includes rare recordings of piping from small specialist labels in early 1920s New York (New Republic and Gaelic Phonographic Recording Company). In some cases, the NPU Archive holds the only known copies of these recordings still in existence.
Reel-to-reel recordings are a major element of the collection. Material on this format in the collection include recordings made at NPU Tionóil since 1968.
The digital collection includes both audio– and audio-visual material that has been created by NPU. Since 2006 all NPU Session with the Pipers performances have been recorded and made available to view on the website. As of mid-2025, more than 5,000 videos are available to the public to view for free.
Historic examples of uilleann pipes and tools for the manufacture of uilleann pipes are included in the Na Píobairí Uilleann Archive Collection. These instruments are available to pipemakers to study. In cases where the instruments are in playing condition, the pipes are made available for loans to pipers.
The instruments in the collection include examples of pipes made by many of the acknowledged masters of Irish pipemaking and represent pipemaking from the mid-eighteenth century up to the late twentieth century. Items have been acquired via donation and purchase, and include instruments made by master pipemakers including Kenna, Maurice Coyne, Michael Egan, Robert Reid, William Taylor, R.L. O’Mealy and Leo Rowsome.
The NPU Archive also includes a wide range of historic correspondence and ephemera relating to uilleann piping including posters, concert programmes, calendars, postcards, flyers and pamphlets.
Please visit this blog to see the latest updates on our collection.
If you have any queries relating to the NPU Archive, please email emmett@pipers.ie.