Achill Island's Dooagh Pipe Band and Manchester’s award-winning Fianna Phadraig Pipe Band are joining forces to celebrate this year's Home to Mayo Festival in May.
The two bands, which are both celebrating 75th anniversaries, are to stage a special joint celebration during the afternoon event on Sunday, May 29, as part of the week-long Mayo.ie Home to Mayo Tradfest, which runs from Thursday, May 26 to Tuesday, May 31.
The Tradfest will tour Mayo and stage events in Attymass, Ballina, Castlebar, Cong, Ashford Castle, Achill Island and Westport.
Tony Hennigan from Mayo Manchester commented: "We are delighted to be returning to Achill to stage this unique event to celebrate 150 years of Irish piping in Mayo and Manchester. It is just one of the action-packed events of our week-long festival of traditional Irish Music, Song and Dance."
The Manchester based Fianna Phadraig Pipe band is the UK’s longest-running and award-winning pipe band and has been a key part of the annual Mayo Manchester Tradfest, which has won a number of awards since it began in 2013.
The band is currently planning one of Europe’s largest pipe band events - the United Pipers for Peace - which will take place in Manchester in September, along with a festival in France in front of an anticipated crowd of 60,000 people and also hopes to take part in New York’s St Patrick’s Day Parade and a tour of America in 2023 as part of their 75th Anniversary celebrations.
The Mayo-based St Patrick’s Pipe Band was established in the village of Dooagh on the western shores of Achill Island, in 1947, with a membership of 11.
However, the roots of the pipe band delve much deeper than just the past 75 years, with the original band in the village - the Dooagh Fife and Drum band, formed in 1882.
The Fife band played a significant role and provided moral support with their music throughout pivotal times in Irish history, such as during Michael Davitt’s Land League and the struggle for Irish independence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Today, the St Patrick’s Day celebration in Achill is a most unique celebration in Ireland, with no less than five pipe bands marching from early morning to late in the evening!
Achill’s annual St Patrick’s Day tradition continued to be one of the highlights of the year during the ebb and flow of Irish society throughout the 20th century as the band contended with pressing factors - namely, emigration.
From that winter of 1945, when the first steps were taken toward the formation of the Pipe Band tradition in Achill, to today, where over almost 150 pipers and drummers march – it is something the community can be proud of fostering and nurturing over the course of many decades.
Throughout the following years and on to today, Dooagh Pipe Band has been a familiar sight at important events in the west and beyond; welcoming important visitors to the region, festivals and events, weddings, football matches and even the opening of Knock Airport, which illustrates just some of the wide range of performances outside of the band’s regular schedule of St Patrick’s Day, Easter Sunday and New Year’s Eve.
2022 is promising to be a famous year in the history of Dooagh Pipe Band as it looks to march in to its 75th year of music, tradition, and celebration.
A series of events to mark the occasion will take place over St Patrick’s Day and right throughout the weekend, Achill will be the place to be on March 17, 2022. You can keep up to date with these events and much more on the Facebook page: Dooagh Pipe Band, Achill, or you can visit the website www.dooagh.com
