The Great Northern Irish Pipers Club is group uilleann (pronounced: illan) pipers located in beautiful Minnesota. The Irish Uilleann pipes are a bellows blown bagpipe, quite different from the loud Scottish Highland pipes commonly seen in parades. The uilleann pipes are a fairly quiet, complex bagpipe ideal for playing jigs, reels and mournful airs. But you knew that already, didn’t you.
The club normally meets once a month and consists of everything from very experienced pipers to rank beginners. Once a year we hold an annual gathering called a Tionól that is filled with workshops, sessions and wonderful piping. Please visit the tionól information page to see bios, schedules an up-to-date information.
We’ll be updating the site shortly and trying out some new video technology to highlight past tionól concerts.
2009 Tionól
The 2009 Tionol was held the weekend of May 16th and 17th! We were delighted to have Tom Creegan ,Patrick ‘Darcy, Pat Cannady and Karen Cook Cannady join us for the weekend. Some pictures of the weekend will be posted soon so keep your eye open, and as always, sound and/or video of the concert will be uploaded soon as well.
Our monthly meetings will be held on the first Sunday of every month in 2009. The location is subject to change so keep checking the site for details.
The May meeting is our tionól. See you there!
PIPING HOT 4 great success. The Great Northern Irish Pipers’ Club (GNIPC) presenteda concert of bagpiping and bagpipes from across the globe on April 18th in the 3M Auditorium (in the Owens Science Building: corner of Cretin and Summit) at the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. The evening was a fund-raising event with proceeds to benefit the goals and programs of GNIPC.
Guest artists included Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band (featuring Irish tunes on the Highland Pipes), Tim Britton (uilleann pipes), Dick Hensold (Northumbrian pipes and other European bagpipes), Laura MacKenzie (Scottish Border Pipes, and other European bagpipes), Kim Sobbe (Leicestershire smallpipes) as well as members and friends of the Great Northern Irish Pipers’ Club (uilleann pipes).
GNIPC has become a part of the myspace world! Check it out at MySpace.
Featuring Jimmy O’Brien Moran and Patrick D’Arcy - videos coming soon.
The Great Northern Irish Pipers’ Club (GNIPC) held its seventh-annual Tionól May 17th and 18th, 2008.
Tionól (pr. “chuh-nole) is Irish for “gathering” - in this case- a gathering of uilleann pipers. Our guest pipers/instructors were Jimmy O’Brien Moran and Patrick D’Arcy.
We are happy and grateful to announce that the 2008 Great Northern Irish Pipers’ Club Tionól was supported in part by a grant from Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU).
New Content
The Tionól videos have been updated into a new format with a higher quality. We have the concerts from 2004 through 2008 online.
2008 concert videos just added. Click here to view.
That’s right, in 2008, we had a tent devoted to
pipes and dance - the Keegan’s Pub Pipers & Seisiún
Tent. Events included GNIPC Club recitals, Singing with Uilleann
Pipes, dancing with the Uilleann Pipes, sessions with local musicians,
and Kieren O’Hare as our guest master piper. We also had a visit and
great tunes with out old friends from Chicago, Pat Cannady and Karen
Cook Cannady. All in all a great success. See you in 2009!
Click here to see pictures from this 2007’s event.
