IRELAND’S first dedicated uilleann pipe workshop and training facility opened in Clonshaugh last week.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan, officially launched Pipecraft. Spearheaded by Na Piobairi Uilleann (NPU), the Society of Uileann Pipers, and supported by LEADER/Rural Development Companies from Laois, Donegal, Meath, Carlow and Fingal, the centre will contain an uilleann pipe-making facility and a training programme to school a new generation of craftspeople in the art of instrument-making.
Apart from creating new jobs, the centre’s work will ensure that the art of uillean pipe-making is preserved.
The full-time pipe-making course is the first of its kind and there will be 10 participants in the first three-year programme.
Given that uilleann pipe players and collectors have to wait up to seven years to purchase a new set, it is hoped this course will produce craftsmen to satisfy growing international demand.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Deenihan said:
“I am delighted that the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht made significant funding available to equip this new PipeCraft training centre here in Clonshaugh
“I have no doubt that the initiative of Na PÃobairà Uilleann in establishing this centre will bring about a huge advance in the transmission of the skills of uilleann pipe-making to current and future generations, and ensure that Ireland remains the centre of excellence in this 250-year-old craft.
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A spokesperson for NPU said the instrument had been produced since the mid-18th century. When renowned pipe-maker Leo Rowsome died in 1970, he was the only craftsman in the world working as a full-time uilleann pipe-maker.
There are over 60 makers around the world supplying instruments to over 6,000 players in over 40 contries, but most of the makers are based in Britain, Canada, the USA, Europe and Japan.
The craft of uilleann pipe-making is intricate and involves wood-turning, engineering and metal forging, leather-work, reed-making and musicianship.
Anne Goodwin of Laois Partnership Company said Pipecraft was a perfect project for LEADER funding.
“As far as the LEADER groups are concerned funding the training at Pipecraft ticks all the boxes in the rural development remit,
? she said.
“It involves the preservation of our heritage and innovative training but most of all leads to job creation and import substitution.
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Ms Goodwin explained that the investment by the LEADER companies in each trainee over three years comes to approximately
?¬36,000.
The opening of Pipecraft will also mark the launch of a concerted fund-raising campaign by NPU to make up the current funding shortfall of
?¬40,000 (
?¬120,000 in total) in each of the next three years in order to deliver the full programme of part-time and full-time courses.
Along with the involvement of the NPU and the LEADER companies the project is supported by the Arts Council, the Crafts Council and Minister Deenihan’s Department.