         
Submission to
The Joint Committee on Heritage and the Irish Language
on the Traditional Music of Ireland
March 1999
By the 1960’s very few people in Ireland were playing the pipes and far fewer, perhaps only five, were engaged in the making of the instrument. It was a matter of grave concern that the art would decline further and so The Society of Uilleann Pipers known as Na Píobairí Uilleann (The Uilleann Pipers) was founded in 1968 at grassroots level by pipers themselves. The aims of the society are to perpetuate the spirit of the music, in particular the playing of the pipes and the production and maintenance of the instrument itself. To achieve these aims the single most important facet of the Society’s activities is the teaching of the uilleann pipes, especially to young people, as it is through this that the playing of the instrument will increase, prosper and develop. The degree to which the work of the Society has borne fruit is reflected in the number of pipemakers, many professional, now producing pipes - about forty throughout the world.
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