Remembering veterans in Vancouver and beyond with bagpipes

The weather forecast is ominous. November 11th is usually the last day of the year that most pipers and pipe bands venture into the great outdoors to perform one last time before winter winds sweep down and snow, rain and ice envelope our small part of the globe.  This year the forecast, as usual, is …

A loyal, generous and infamous Vancouver pipe major passes into history

The story about Ian Millman that sticks with me is the time the mayor of Vancouver announced at a crowded formal dinner that the City had decided to fund the Vancouver Police Pipe Band’s upcoming trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. The fully-kilted pipe major Ian Millman got out of his seat, marched over to the mayor …

Well deserved Honourary Doctorates

Congratulations to Simon Fraser University Pipe Band Pipe Major Dr. Terry Lee (l) and his brother SFUPB Pipe Sergeant Dr. Jack Lee for being awarded Simon Fraser University’s highest honour – an honourary PhD for their contributions to both the university and the SFU Pipe Band. — with Terry Lee and Jack Lee.

Playing bagpipes for Police Funerals and for Deputy Sherriff Jeremiah MacKay

A lone piper stood outside the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office on February 14, lamenting the death of a fellow piper and deputy sheriff, Jeremiah MacKay.  After years of playing at funerals for fallen police colleagues as the chief piper for the Inland Empire Emerald Society, friends are now playing for Jeremiah MacKay. MacKay was …

Brightening “a stable all forlorn” with bagpipes and celebration

In the Christmas song “Mary’s Little Boy Child” written by Jester Hairston (check out this corny but popular disco version by Boney M), the song relates the story of Christ’s birth “in a stable all forlorn”. The song relates that “trumpets sound and angels sing”. From the famous 17th century painting “The Adoration of the …

A taste of the “old country”: ancient stories, Gaelic & bagpiping

(Ed. note: The following is a segment of an autobiographical sketch of Joe Peter MacLean, a well known Cape Breton fiddler of the Gaelic tradition. He was born and lives in Cape Breton, immersed in the insulated and uniquely Canadian Scottish culture of North Eastern Nova Scotia. His full sketch can be found here. This …

Former mayor Senator Larry Campbell pipes in on Vancouver bagpiper ban

The masses have spoken. The ban on bagpiping on Vancouver city streets has been lifted after a spirited uproar from bagpipers, piping organizations, the general population and a cabinet minister from Scotland. The bylaw banning the excessive noise of bagpipes, drums, bongos and tambourines on city streets was quietly introduced by the city’s engineering department …

Who needs St. Patrick’s Day. There’s an International Bagpipe Day.

Now here’s something I didn’t  know. International Bagpipe Day. It seems this auspicious occasion is celebrated in England at the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum in Morpeth, just south of the Scottish border. I’m sorry to say I missed the international celebration but it appears from the following news story published in the Morpeth Herald that …