Female led Laois pipe band on the hunt for forgotten instruments

While many marching pipe bands in Laois have fallen to the wayside, one female led band is marching loudly into the future.

Durrow and District Pipe Band enthralled their community in this year's St Patrick's Day parade.

A growing group with new young members, most of them female, they are on the hunt for forgotten pipes and drums left in Laois attics, to lovingly bring them back to life and perform at events.

The band's Pipe Major is Maria O'Connor, a Dublin native now living in Cullohill.

She told the Leinster Express / Laois Live more.

"St Patrick's was a super day, fantastic. Everyone was so happy with it.

"We have about 14 members, a couple of them are also in comhaltas groups. We practice every Thursday in Durrow, in our band room, kindly offered to us in a room above the church sacristy. We do outdoors practices too. We are also allowed to use PJ Aylward's Museum of Antiquities outside Durrow for practices.

"In the past year we took Scottish drumming lessons, from Rhona Saunders, who is retired from St Laurence O'Toole Band. Our drum section has improved in leaps and bounds since. 

"We are still recruiting new members, we are interested in juniors or any other peole who have played in the past. We'd love to have them on board. I want to build up our numbers so that we are resilient if some people are busy on certain days or in college. You'd always be missing some. 

"We are very keen to keep the tradition going. It is always an uphill struggle, pulling people in but we have a terrific group now. We are all there for the love of the music, of dressing up and getting out, and having great craic.  Every one is a lovely person, that's the top quality we look for. We are all there to help each other. We want to pass on our skills."

She said that Covid put an end to many pipe bands.

"We're the die hards. We did outdoor practices instead," Maria said.

They are always adding to their repertoire of tunes, which include Wearing in the Green, Hail Glorious St Patrick, Minstral Boy and Grace and many Scottish tunes. 

The band was first founded in 1913, reforming twice since, most recently in 2016 when stalward member Johnny Sheeran, since deceased, invited Maria to join. 

"I hadn't played music since the tin whistle in school, now I play bagpipes and drums. We encourage members to learn both and discover which they have a talent for"

See photos of Durrow St Patrick's Day parade

The pipe major is on a mission to find and reuse forgotten instruments.

"There are old reels of a band championship in Durrow, it looked like a carnival, there are so many instruments that I'm sure there must be some stuck in people's attics. We need to equip our new members. The good instruments are really expensive, but we would treasure old ones. I can do some repairs but if needed we will send them away for repair," she said.

Read next: Laois comhaltas branch marching in New York parade

They plan to do fundraisers to cover costs, and Maria has a few fun ideas up her sleeves too.

"I'd love to do a flash mob, and maybe a tug of war, that would be fun with everyone in their kilts. I'd like to add a modern drum circle to our band too, as everyone of us can drum."

New members and anyone with bagpipes or drums to donate, is welcome to contact Maria on 085 8706552.