The Great Northern Irish Pipers Club


Minnesota's Premiere Uilleann Piping Club

Welcome!

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.

GNIPC Monthly Meeting

Monthy Meeting on Sunday, October 19th!
We’ll be meeting at Tom Klein’s house in St. Paul at 1:00. For direction or further information contact us via email or simply use the form on the right side of the page.

Here is our general schedule for 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!

2008 GNIPC Tionól Great Success!

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 2007 (with the exception of 2006) online. 2006 with Jerry Sullivan coming soon.

Pipers Tent at the 2008 Minnesota Irish Fair

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. Look for us next year!

Click here to see pictures from this 2007’s event. 2008 photos coming soon.