Milwaukee Irish Festival
We met some young and talented musicians at the Milwaukee Irish Festival of 2014.
Our favorites?
We met and heard Socks in the Frying Pan in Milwaukee, and later in 2014 in both Pittsburgh and Muskegon. We lost count of the number of 2015 festivals in which they, and we, were performers. And we saw them yet again in County Clare!
Armagh Pipers
We thoroughly enjoyed representatives of the Armagh Pipers Club, particularly Connor Mallon.
Connor is the reigning All-Ireland Piping Champion.
Connor plays the Uilleann pipes. The bellow is inflated by pumping from the elbow (‘uilleann’ is elbow in Irish), and not by blowing into it.
‘Uilleann’ is pronounced several ways, but Connor pronounces it ‘Ellen’. Since he is the world’s best, we’ll go with that.
We made it to the Kennedy Piping Festival in 2015 and it was well worth the trip.
The photo (which is not much of a closeup) is of Connor on the pipes and his sister Emer on the harp. All photographs by Linda McDonnell.
