Working Well

By Bill Grigg

On behalf of all the members of The Birmingham Irish Pipes and Drums I would like to pass on our condolences and sympathy to the family of Pat Baggot. Pat sadly passed away on the morning of the 25 January after a long battle against illness. Despite his troubles he always put on a brave face and kept himself busy by raising thousands of pounds for various charities. He was a big supporter of the band and held many fundraising dances for the band raising thousands of pounds over the years.
I personally met Pat for the first time in Ballybunnion Co. Kerry. He had come down for a few days to spend it with the band whilst we were playing the Mussel festival there. From that moment he was an ever present; wherever the band was playing he would try and be there. Over the years he was presented with a band tie, a band fleece and at our 8th anniversary dance was awarded a glass trophy thanking him for all his hard work for the band. He will be sadly missed by us all and by many, many people throughout the Irish Community and amongst the many charities and good causes that he raised funds for.
Although we have not been out playing much recently we have been very busy getting our tunes sorted for the Parade weekend in Birmingham and then the St. Patrick’s Parade in Castlebar Co. Mayo. We will also be playing the Irish Night at St Peter and Paul’s on Friday 23 February, I hope we will see a lot of familiar faces there.
It will seem a little strange this year because the Saturday before the actual Birmingham Parade is generally very busy. Firstly we play the Sandwell Parade at 10a.m., then Erdington at midday before moving up to Birmingham City centre for the reel. But, because St Patrick’s Day is on the Saturday this year we will be in Mayo as the Sandwell and Erdington parades are taking place. So we should have a fairly quiet Saturday just playing up at the Bull Ring – indoors please parade committee members!! (It always seems to be cold on that Saturday for some reason).
We are really looking forward to Mayo and stopping in Westport. The hotel has a pool and a gym so the band will be lucky if they see me at all. The same coach firm and driving crew is taking us over so as they already know what we are like; the craic should be good. On the Sunday a few of us will be going to Knock and after mass will play a few tunes for Fr. Taaffe.
We have worked out that we will have ten junior members of the band travelling with us with an age range from seven to eighteen. All of these juniors are either involved in learning Pipes or Drums, so if we can keep their enthusiasm the future of the band does look very bright and hopefully, in late March, we will be having an ex-army piper joining us from what was the Irish Hussars Regiment.
A huge thanks to The Monaghan Association for their generous donation of £200 to the band. As mentioned in the Harp last month, Mary Pesketh donated the money to the association for it to be handed over to the band. This Willie Finnegan did at one of our band practices at SS Mary & John’s school. The picture shows Willie presenting the cheque to Bass Drummer Maurice Long.
Sunday 21 January saw members of the band playing at the surprise 70th birthday for parish priest Fr. Joyce. At the end of 11am mass, Joel Grigg piped up with ‘Happy Birthday’ as parish youngsters carrying balloons and a great 70th birthday cake made by Margaret Coogan (of Co. Tyrone fame) followed him down the aisle. The rest of the band then marched in to play Fr. Joyce to the school where a surprise tea party had been organised. Twenty minutes later we were still outside waiting for him to follow us, I think he was a little surprised, but eventually we hauled him out and played him in to his party.
So, things are starting to hot up
for us events wise and we look forward to seeing you all in the near future. To book the band or find
out how you can join the band call Bill on (0121) 686 3832 or Maurice on (0121) 783 0323. You can go online and view our website at www.birminghamirishpipesanddrums.co.uk or you can email me at bill@birminghamirishpipesanddrums.co.uk - The technology of the web, wonderful isn’t it. You
should all have a look at the site when you get the chance you may well be on there.