• Classes
  enrolment of over 200 - the highest numbers to date with 41 classes each week. We welcomed new teachers Mary O’Neill & Éilis Lavelle (harp), Emma Murphy, Emer Mallon, Ciaran Breen & Orlaith Hughes (whistle), Jolene McGleenan & Ciaran Hanna (flute), Justin Toner, Niall Murphy, Siobhán Grimley (fiddle), Rosie Ferguson (banjo) and Catherine Donnelly (singing) to the staff along with our teachers from last year.


• Trad at the Trian
  3 successful concerts with instrumentalists Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Patsy Hanley (flute), Griogair Labhruidh (pipes and also songs), and singers Rosie Stewart, Síle Denvir (also harp), and Pauline Hanley. Excellent support for these concerts was provided by the Murphy Family, Mallon Family and Kiernan Family


• 14th William Kennedy Piping Festival
  with 9 major concerts, 33 workshops, 9 conference talks, 11 free sessions, 2 art exhibitions, 5 radio broadcasts, 1 T.V. programme


• LCM Winter exams
  100% success rate, with top marks achieved by 14 year old Lisa McKee (92% Grade 8 fiddle) and 8 year old Cathal Murphy (91% Grade 4 whistle). Congratulations to everyone who took part.


• 40th Anniversary CD Launch
  over 100 musicians from past and present membership of the Club recorded music and songs for the double CD, a great testimony to the continuing work of Armagh Pipers Club.

Pipers Club teachers and musicians have been active throughout the summer with a plethora of music festivals in and summer schools in Ireland and abroad. One of these was the 'Festival de Cornouaille' in Kemper, Brittany where the premier concert featured Flook and the Vallely Brothers with enthusiastic Armagh fans, Smyths, Fearons and Murphys in the audience! Armagh Rhymers along with Eithne, Caoimhín, Cillian Vallely and Jarlath Henderson performed at the Smithsonian Festival of Folklife in Washington in July. 'Piping Live' in Glasgow brought some more Armagh musicians to the concert stage with Lúnasa opening the Festival. Patricia Daly performed at Rostrevor's 'Fiddler's Green Festival' as well as a number of Harp Festivals around the country.

There is a feature on Jarlath Henderson in September's 'Northern Ireland Homes & Lifestyle' magazine while his sister, Alana, has been selected to take part in a forthcoming television Irish drama series. The 'John Hewitt Summer School' brought some life to Armagh during a dreary month of July, with nightly sessions organized by Dara Vallely, Gerry Lappin, Martin Meehan and Brian Vallely.

Brian has been commissioned by Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow to put on a special performance at this year's Festival. He has entitled the concert 'The Singing Tree' and it will feature a 14 piece band, including a number of musicians who have links with the Pipers Club - Jarlath & Alana Henderson, Caoimhín Vallely, Méabh O’Hare and Barry Kerr - as well as a host of other top musicians such as Cara Dillon, Trevor Hutchinson and poet Gearóid Mac Lochlainn. The first performance of the concert took place in the Marketplace Theatre in Armagh on Monday 7th January.

The Dave Williams Pipe-making Workshop was set up last year under the direction of teacher and pipe-maker Eamonn Curran. Most of the senior piping pupils attended reed-making classes every fortnight with quite a few becoming proficient. We hope to move the workshop to a more suitable venue shortly, and will make out a timetable for the piping groups.

APC has been featured a wide variety of TV and Radio programmes during the year. If you have missed these, many are still available on the various websites, including TG4 (Geantraí, from Red Ned’s and the 10 year special edition of Geantraí).

BBC Radio Ulster programmes in the Blas series which were recorded during the WKPF are up and the BBC website and can be easily accessed.