Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

4

8 4 27 20120927 27 Brian had been struggling with the concert pitch chanter that Leo had made for him and he told Finbar he was thinking of getting him- self a flute. Finbar told him to do nothing of the sort – he should get himself a flat chanter, and he knew just where to get one. And that is how Brian and Finbar and Finbar’s pipes ended up on Brian’s motorbike heading to call on Matt Kiernan. Matt was a retired Garda, originally from Athboy in Co. Meath, and he was making practice sets of pipes as a hobby. As luck would have it Matt had a chanter pitched in C which he sold to Brian on the spot for £10. Matt’s house in Cabra was a well known music house where musical visitors were commonplace and Brian used to visit quite a bit. Matt would often go through tunes with Brian, and although they weren’t formal lessons, Brian picked up lots of music and piping technique from Matt who he said had simple but beautiful tunes. Brian still remembers learning his first triplet: ACA, from Matt and how delighted he was to have it and to practice it. Although Matt’s chanters were lovely, he didn’t excel at reedmaking. Dan O’Dowd, a fireman, was the main source for reeds for the piping com- munity at the time. Dan would make them in the fire station while waiting for the next alarm to sound. When someone needed a reed they would be told to sift through the huge number of reeds that Dan would have until they found something that suited their particular chanter. Brian learned some reedmaking from Dan and for a while made reeds for Matt Kiernan’s flat chanters, albeit with limited success. When Pat Mitchell heard Brian’s C chanter, he too went and ordered a similar chanter from Matt – Matt had none left in stock so it took a while to make. Now Brian and Pat could be found roaming hither and yon on Brian’s motorbike to every Fleadh and Feis and session in the country, armed with their flat chanters which they played together. One particular time they found themselves at a fleadh in Ballinasloe but they weren’t too impressed with the music they found. Then they got wind of a pub on the out- skirts of town where something might be stir- ring and they set off to investigate. They found the pub, in the midst of which were sitting Breandán Breathnach, Seán Reid and Willie Clancy. They introduced themselves, and Brian showed Willie Clancy his Kiernan C chanter which Clancy played and was very impressed by. And so Brian and Willie be- came friends and Brian would travel to visit him in Miltown Malbay. Clancy wasn’t a fan of big crowds and Brian recalls a time when he arrived into the front of Friel’s pub and sat down and began to play a few tunes on the whistle. Gradually a crowd began to form at which stage Clancy stood up and moved back into the next room where this time he would take out the pipes to play. Eventually the crowd would follow him in, and when it got too busy, Clancy would retreat further again into the back kitchen to play until finally the noise of the following crowd would drive him to pack up. He wasn’t a fan of sessions, and always played solo. Willie lived on the Flag Road and Brian would call in to visit him there. By this stage Brian’s C chanter had begun to grow – he still had the bag and bellows from the Rowsome practice set, but by now Matt Kiernan had tied in a set of drones and a baritone regulator. Matt had made the tenor

8

27

[Periodical]

2012-09-21T00:00:00

anonymous,guest,friend,member