Like Christmas, the William Kennedy Piping Festival comes but once a year, turning Armagh into a Winter Wonderland for fans of the pipes. Originally dedicated to the uillean pipes, over the last number of years the festival has broadened out into a celebration of all the numerous variants of the instrument.

Piping is a very broad church and its fans are a welcoming bunch. My postman, for example, is a fan of the Galician Pipes and of pan pipes too.
“I’m mad for the pipes,” he told me when he first figured out that I somehow had something to do with music, and every since he’ll take me to one side every now and again and tell me of his latest discovery. When I showed him the press release for the William Kennedy Piping Festival, I thought he was going to kiss me.
As well he might – the Galician pipes are represented by Edelmiro Fernandez who appears at the World Piping Concert on Saturday November 14 along with Portugal’s Roncos de Diabo, Northern Ireland’s Andrew Carlisle and Jerry O’Sullivan from the United States. The festival actually covers a sufficiently wide ground to attract anyone with an interest in traditional music and this year the concerts are arranged around certain themes.
It all kicks off Thursday November 12 with a duets concert featuring Cillian Vallely with Kevin Crawford, Kieran O’Hare with Liz Knowles, Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn with Paul O’Shaughnessy and Loïc with Ronan Bléjean.
On the following day there the festival will pair Mozaik (that’s Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Nikola Parov, Bruce Molsky and Rens van der Zalm to the unintiated) with the Brian Finnegan Band.
Saturday finds the festival settle in to a comfortable rhythm with a concert focussing on pipes and song which showcases Griogair Labhruidh and Sile Denvir, Anna Murray, Lorcan MacMathuna and Maitiu O Casaide, getting the day off to a melodic start at 2.00 pm. Two hours later the first “World Piping Concert” detailed above kicks off while the day is capped by a concert featuring Micheal O Suilleabhain with Mel Mercier, Iarla O Lionaird, Grace Toland, Cillian Vallely, Tiarnan O Duinnchinn, The Carolan String Orchestra and members of The Armagh Piping Club.
On Sunday afternoon at 3pm, the second of the World Piping concerts takes place, this one featuring the pairing of Basque group Alboka and Cormac Breatnach, Scotland’s Fraser Fifeld and Ali Hutton, and Brittany’s Ronan Le Bars and Nicolas Quemener. The final concert, later that evening at 7.30 pm, is simply a celebration of the uileann pipes bringing the combined talents of Jerry O’Sullivan, Ronan de Bars, Eliot Grasso, Marc Pollier, Kieran O’Hare and Loise Bleajean to the stage. Scattered in and around this smorgsabord of pipe-blowing is a full programme of sessions, workshops, lectures and exhibitions.
For those of you too busy to make the trip North of the border, the Brian Finnegan Band, or Brian Finnegan Quartet depending on which press release you’re inclined to believe, will be making an appearance at Walkinstown’s Cherrytree on Thursday November 12 before they too brave the Great Northern Way.
On the back of his journey through the Dublin suburbs Damien Dempsey brings his tour of Dublin into town for an intimate show at Whelan’s.
This is a rare chance to catch Damo on his own with his guitar in small venues around the city before he heads into the studio in the new year to record his next album, the follow up to 2007’s To Hell or Barbados and the acclaimed The Rocky Road. In a travelling homage to the city he loves so deeply, Damien will be stopping off at Tallaght’s Civic Theatre on Wednesday December 9, Blanchardstown’s Draiocht on Friday December 11 (although unless you’ve already got a ticket for that one you’re sunk as it’s already sold out), Ballymun’s Axis Theatre on Saturday December 12 and Dun Laoghaire’s Pavilion Theatre on Sunday December 13. He’ll also be taking the bus ride into town with a pair of dates in Whelans on Thursday 17 and Sunday December 20. In the new year he plans to head back into the studio to work on a follow up to The Rocky Road, so chances to see him next year may be thinner on the ground so get him while you can.