The pipes are calling

Eamonn Walsh is the current world champion uilleann piper in his class, an honour he gained at the World Fleadh held in Ballybunion last year. Indeed, he has strongly promoted the fleadh down through the years, and in 1997 was successful in his efforts to have it held in his hometown of Ballina, Co Mayo. The staging of the competition benefited the town to the tune of 20m euro in revenue.

Walsh has been involved extensively in cross-border music projects, and represented Ireland with his pipes at the Lorient Folk Festival in Brittany in 1987, at Expo ’90 Osaka in Japan, at the Lafcadio Hearn centenary celebrations in Japan, and again at Expo ’92 in Seville. He has also promoted the integration of immigrants on numerous occasions, especially through activities with the Afghan, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Nig-erian communities.

This work saw Walsh recently short-listed for the World Refugee Day Awards at a ceremony in Dublin. A modest man, Walsh told Metro Eireann he thought he was only going to be playing background music at the awards party. “Then I heard the shortlisted candidates and my name was read out alongside Brian Kerr’s… I was chuffed at just being nominated. It was a great honour.”

Walsh will shortly begin another campaign, aimed at convincing the new Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Seamus Brennan, to consider a plan for a national centre for excellence in world cultures, to be based in Dublin.

“I’m trying to locate a world music venue for Dublin,” he says. “In this day and age there are so many multicultural communities in Dublin and there is no specific place that they feel they could showcase their art and play their music. A world culture venue would be a great asset to Dublin. I will be gaining support from other cultural groups that I play with such as the Afghan cultural group. We’ll see how it goes.”

Walsh does not come from a particularly musical family, and puts his passion down to a listening experience back in the early 1980s. “I was at a concert in Trinity College,” he recalls. “I heard Planxty, and when Liam O’Flynn started playing the uilleann pipes I fell in love – with the pipes, that is. I was totally hooked. After the concert I approached him and asked how I could get started. He put me on the right road.”

O’Flynn gave Walsh the name of Matt Kiernan, a pipemaker in Cabra who made a beginners’ set for Walsh. The Uilleann Piping Society in Dublin gave Walsh classes and in 1986, through sheer dedication to the instrument, he became  All-Ireland champion.

“Things just took off then and touring started,” he remembers. “I’m still working as a postal sorter but the fleadhs and performances are a big part of my life now.”

Since becoming the world champion, Walsh has found that the invites and requests are non-stop. He is in great demand and has performed all over Europe. He has also been invited to Washington DC in October to attend a world conference on music.

Time commitments have meant that Walsh needs to be selective about his engagements. Another factor he must consider when planning for events is the travel. “Because of tighter security measures there is a restriction on hand luggage, as we all know too well,” he says. “My pipes pack into a case that is three inches deep by three foot long. This is over the size limit and I need to place the pipes in the hold. The problem is that the case and the pipes have been damaged in transit before and once they went missing. It is very difficult when you arrive to do a concert in a European city and your instrument is nowhere to be found. It’s not like a double bass which could be borrowed or hired in an emergency.”

Walsh’s concerns are even more compelling when you consider the replacement value of a set of decent pipes is around 13,500 euro, and the waiting list, he says, can run up to 12 years. Walsh argues that the case could easily fit into the overhead lockers: “This is a valuable and fragile instrument and I have been put in the position before at airports of having to leave it in fairly insecure areas. In one instance I had to sit and guard it until the baggage was loaded.” Walsh’s only course of action at the moment is to buy a separate seat for his pipes.

Walsh teaches the uilleann pipes at the Tubber-curry South Sligo Summer School every summer. He is continually practicing, too. “There is always learning to be done,” he says. “New orientations and tunes from some of the masters – Willy Clancy, Seamus Ennis and Leo Rowsome – have given us plenty to do.”
While his playing is in demand at weddings, ceremonial and state occasions, Walsh likes nothing better than a good session and plays regularly at the Cobblestone in Dublin’s Smithfield and at Hughes’ Bar on Chancery Street.

“A good session is one that is fast and generates its own body language among the performers,” he enthuses. “There’s nothing worse than a slow ponderous player.”

Walsh still gets a bit nervous going out to perform in front of new people: “A warm reception will break the ice and make it easier. My advice to any young fleadh performer who might be nervous is just relax, concentrate and if you do make a mistake keep on going, go on to the next line or verse. Be it fiddle or pipes, never stop.”