The Great Northern Irish Pipers Club

Annual Tionól Tunes & Videos Our Friends Contact Us		Welcome! The Great Northern Irish Pipers Club is an uilleann (pronounced: illan) club 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.

		2008 GNIPC Tionól May 17th and 18th, 2008 at the Landmark Center Featuring Jimmy O'Brien Moran and Patrick D'Arcy! The Great Northern Irish Pipers’ Club (GNIPC) will be hosting 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 will be Jimmy O'Brien Moran and Patrick D’Arcy, who (along with other guests) will be part of a concert Saturday May 17. The concert will be held at Cherokee Park United Church, 371 West Baker Street, St. Paul 55107 (map). Concert tickets ($15.00) are available in advance from GNIPC. You can reserve your tickets by using the ticket reservation form on your left and simply put the number of tickets you'd like to reserve in the message area. Tickets will also be available at the workshops during the day on Saturday, and at the door Saturday night. The concert gets underway at 7:00 pm on Saturday. All proceeds support the efforts of the club. The weekend workshop will consist of two days of piping instruction. The workshops will be held at the beautiful and historic Landmark Center (75 West Fifth Street - map) in the heart of Downtown St. Paul (the Saturday evening concert will be at the Cherokee Park United Church). The workshops on Saturday will be located in the Schubert Club 2nd Floor Museum Gallery (room 201) from 10:00am to 5:00pm with a break for lunch. Registration begins at 9:00am on Saturday. Sunday’s workshops will be from 10:30 until 4:00 and will meet in room 317. Workshops will be divided into beginner players and intermediate/advanced players. There will also be sessions on pipe maintenance and troubleshooting as well as reed making demonstrations. Cost for the two-day workshop is $65.00 ($55.00 for members). Reduced early registration fees are also available. Registration forms can be found here. The schedule in now online here. Everyone is welcome....even if you have never touched a set of pipes in your life and have no instrument! This is a tremendous opportunity to rub elbows (if you will) with some of the world’s greatest pipers, and meet members of our now-thriving uilleann pipe community. We are happy and grateful to announce that the 2008 Great Northern Irish Pipers' Club Tionól will be supported in part by a grant from Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU).

		GNIPC Monthly Meeting Next Date to Be Announced Soon 1:00 - 4:00 We'll post the meeting location as soon as we have it confirmed. Here is general schedule for our meetings: 12:45 Pre-event milling about 1:00-2:00 Beginning Class 2:00-2:15 Break 2:15-3:15 Advanced Class 3:15-4:00 General Pandemonium & tunes! See you soon!

		2007 GNIPC Tionól a Great Success! The 2007 tionól took place May 19th and 20th, 2007 and will featured the mastery of Michael Cooney, Paddy Keenan and Eamonn Dillon as well as reedmaking workshops by Joseph Smith. Visit the official 2007 Tionól page here. Stay tuned for photos, videos from the Saturday evening concert and a full tionól report. We are happy and grateful to announce that the 2007 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 2007 (with the exception of 2006) online. 2006 with jerry Sullivan coming soon.

		Pipers Tent at the 2007 Minnesota Irish Fair August 10 - 12, 2007, Harriet Island in St. Paul That's right, in 2007, 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 Michael 'Piper' Cooney as our guest master piper. Lot's of people expressed interest in learning more about the pipes. All in all a great success. Look for us next year! Click here to see pictures from this years event.