Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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9 2 24 20130417 20 ~ NPU News ~ MEMBERS SURVEY N A PÍOBAIRÍ UILLEANN are conducting an opinion survey of the membership, and we would encourage all members to complete the survey as soon as possible. Previous surveys were conducted in 2007 and 2009, and the feedback informed NPU’s sub- sequent development and activities. Based on the comments submitted, choices were made about the allocation of our always-limited re- sources. As we prepare to develop a strategy to see us over the next five years, we are anxious to make sure that it embodies the needs and aspi- rations of the membership, so please assist us by responding in a timely fashion. Where we have a record of an email address on a membership record, members will have been invited to complete the survey online. Where we don’t, a printed survey form will be found enclosed with this issue of An Píobaire. In either case, we would ask you to complete the survey no later than Tuesday April 30th. If you have received a printed form, and you do have an email address, please advise us so that we can update our records and improve our standard of communication and service. Thank you in advance for your participation. O N A VISIT TO JOHNSTOWN PARISH church (near Navan) at Christmas, I was en- thralled to see in the crib, instead of the usual figures of shepherds with lambs and young goats, two pretty young lassies, one carrying flowers, the other carrying a pitcher, and a piper. Not Uilleann pipes unfortunately, they weren’t invented yet, but an old European instrument, mouth blown, with a chanter and three drones pointing downwards. One would assume that the piper is playing a lullaby on a nice ‘soft’ reed, or else St Joseph would be likely to let a roar some- thing like ‘Get that bloody thing out of here be- fore you frighten the life out of the child’. All joking aside, these are probably pastoral pipes, from France or central Europe, and copied from one of the hundreds of paintings from the middle ages depicting music at any social occasion where people are enjoying themselves, and, by jove, they are usually very loud when played in- doors. As I discovered a few years ago, on visit- ing some piping museums on the continent, pipes of varying descriptions were played in many countries that we don’t associate with pip- ing at all, and although sizes, shapes and sounds varied dramatically, they all have a few things in common, a mouth blown bag, one or more drones and an open chanter which suggests that they only played one octave with maybe an extra note at either end. Also, it was quite common for shepherds to play the pipes, sure what else would you be doing out on the mountain-side at mid- THE PIPER IN THE CRIB BILL SLATTERY

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