Just back from Ireland - nothing to report

[PJ]

I'm just back (in Canada) after 2 weeks in Ireland and would you believe, I hardly heard a note of piping during my stay. I didn't bring my pipes with me because there was doubt about whether I'd be able to bring them in the cabin. However, when I got to airport, I saw at least 3 fiddlers and one guitarist bring their instruments on board. I'll know next time.

The only thing I really wanted to do (related to piping) was visit the Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre in the Naul, but after spending an hour stuck in a traffic jam on the M50, with screaming kids, even that had to be abandoned. Next time ...

So basically, I've nothing to say (so what's new?)

[Colin29]

Just back from Ireland myself after a three week holiday, originally from Cork, living in Vancouver for the last two years.
Only piping I saw was a group called Arundo who play in Counihans near the GPO.
Regarding bringing instruments on planes, I brought a tenor banjo back with me on British Airways but researched it before doing so and their policy is along as it's guitar sized or smaller you can bring it on the plane as free extra hand baggage, other airlines may be a bit more strict.
All the best

Colin

[PJ]

I spent 1 of my 2 weeks in Cork. Next time I go back I'll definately bring my pipes and try hook up with the Cork pipers' club.

When I enquired from the airline (Air Transat), they told me that the biggest carry-on they allow is 20 inches. When I got on board, as mentioned, I saw fiddles and a guitar.

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

I got back from a trip to the UK and Ireland a couple of weeks ago. I brought my pipes with me and had no trouble at all bringing them on the plane. As of yet, I haven't been hassled about traveling with pipes anywhere I've flown to. (Touch wood.)

[oliver]

I'm just back (in Canada) after 2 weeks in Ireland and would you believe, I hardly heard a note of piping during my stay.

How is that possible ? Did you get stuck in some local pub ? Or is your family the cause of such a disappointment ? The only reason that I know of that could prevent me from seeing some piping there is... my wife !

[Pat Cannady]

Flying with pipes isn't a big deal. Get on the aircraft quickly; use miles or points to get an early boarding group and/or select a seat at the back of the plane. If you've got a cane, you can feign an ankle sprain to board even earlier!

I've never had trouble flying with my pipes in a meter long rifle case, but you may not feel comfortable with such an arrangement. The 22in x 14in x 9in template used by most American carriers could still accommodate a full set of pipes with some dissassembly provided it has a folded or detachable bass regulator bar. Your bellows should probably go in a backpack, though.

[bradhurley]

It's funny, on my first trip to Ireland in 1980, I spent 10 days there and didn't hear a single note of traditional music. There was plenty of C&W music around; we were on the train and didn't have a way to get out to the villages, and nobody seemed to know where the sessions were. Our overall impression of Ireland at that time was grim: the Liffey was an open sewer, the streets and sidewalks of Dublin were strewn with trash, Cork City was no better. And everyone smoked everywhere: the no-smoking cars on the trains were packed with smokers, and I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in a theater in Dublin through a thick blue haze of smoke. The whole trip felt like one of those savage nightmare journeys, and it was nearly two decades before I set foot in Ireland again (my subsequent trips were lovely and I had a wonderful time, lots of music and good company).

On the flight back from Shannon that first trip in 1980, I sat down in my seat and looked up to see Dolores Keane and John Faulker walking down the aisle to the back of the plane; I saw them two nights later in concert in Boston -- the first Irish music I'd heard in nearly a month!

[gerrymceltic]

Come to Belfast, plenty of great sessions most nights, with loads of piping.

[oliver]

That's right. Went to Belfast 4 and 3 years ago, had a great time. Playing in the Ardoyne fleadh was a great experience, could be hairy sometimes !

[rorybbellows]

How can you spend two weeks in Ireland and have nothing to report ?
How much Guinness did you drink? Did you get into any pub brawls?
Did you meet any drunks fluent in gibberish ? Did you get mugged ?
Did anyone think you were american? Did it stop raining even once?
Did you spend more time outside the pub than in as your a smoker.
Were you present for any lock-ins? Did you have a barney with your missus?
and there just the questions for the first day.

RORY

[oliver]

How can you spend two weeks in Ireland and have nothing to report ?
How much Guinness did you drink? Did you get into any pub brawls?
Did you meet any drunks fluent in gibberish ? Did you get mugged ?
Did anyone think you were american? Did it stop raining even once?
Did you spend more time outside the pub than in as your a smoker.
Were you present for any lock-ins? Did you have a barney with your missus?
and there just the questions for the first day.

RORY

Geez ! All that happened to me and more of course, here it is, thrown in for good measure : a few street and pub fights, a walk through a locked park at night with a former IRA member in a protestant neighbourhood, a flirt with an Ardoyne girl... All this in a week time in Belfast. It didn't rain though, and no one ever thought I was American (of course I had shaved me hair to get this special Ardoyne look... ) . I go to Kerry, it's not as emotionally and nervously tiring...

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

Come to Belfast, plenty of great sessions most nights, with loads of piping.

I spent about a week in Belfast and absolutely loved it. I can't wait to go back. Went to a few excellent sessions there & met more balls-to-the-walls flute players than you could shake a stick at, but surprisingly, I never saw any other pipers. (Though even some of the other musicians admitted that this was a bit unusual.)

Met one crazed, drunk bald-headed guy in an Antrim GAA jersey one night in Madden's who could not get over the seemingly incongruous fact that I was

a.) playing the uilleann pipes and
b.) American

He went on about this at length for some time, repeatedly shaking my hand, breathing heavily in my ear, and trying to convince me to play "The Blacksmith" (not the tune, the Planxty song) by plying me with cider. Finally, a friend of mine walked up to him and said "You know what else? He speaks better Irish than you, too," to which your man replied "Oh sweet Jaysus on the feckin' cross!", and stumbled away, tripping over a chair as he went.

Things didn't get too wild while I was there, though. Then again, I didn't spend any time in Ardoyne...