The Sound That Carries an Island — The Arranmore Pipe Band

For nearly a century, the Arranmore Pipe Band has been woven into the life of Arranmore Island — marking celebrations, honoring those who have passed, and carrying a musical tradition from one generation to the next.

In this episode of The Tides That Tie, band members Sean Gallagher, Noreen Gaughran Lawler, Kayla Early and Proinsias Mac A' Bhaird share the band’s history, the legacy of the late Alec Brown, and the unforgettable 2023 journey to Beaver Island, Michigan.

It’s a story of music, migration, community, and the ties between two islands separated by an ocean — but connected by generations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Two Islands One Soul.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to The Tides That Tie. Exploring Two Islands, One Soul, a podcast that delves into the powerful connections between Beaver Island, Michigan, and Arranmore, County Donegal. Join your hosts, Ron Gregg and Kevin Green, as they uncover the stories, the traditions, and the enduring spirit that unites them. This is the Tides That Tie.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

There are certain sounds that become part of a place. The call of the sea, the sound of boats arriving in the harbor, the voices of neighbors gathering together. And on Aaronmore Island off the coast of County Donegal, there is another sound that has carried through the generations, the sound of pipes. For nearly a century, the Aaronmore Pipe Band has been more than just a musical organization. It has marked celebrations, it has honored those who have passed, it has welcomed islanders home, and it carried the identity of an entire island community. But keeping that tradition alive has never been simple. And on a small island, traditions survive because people choose to carry them forward. They survive because people teach, because people return, and because every generation understands that they are not simply learning music. They are becoming part of a story that began long before them.

SPEAKER_07 1:43

The first time with a with a couple of years of sabbatical in between.

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Here's Kayla Early.

SPEAKER_04 3:46

So I suppose the the the makeup of the band is the leader, or the overall leader, I suppose, as you might call it, would be the pipe major, uh, Joe Gallagher. So he relies on uh Shan Gallagher as leading drummer to to gather the drummers to maintain their training and their practicing. Um either writing new drum scores or or um researching drum scores to match the tunes that we're working on on the pipes. Um he also relies heavily on our drum major, Finbar Gallagher. He um he would help us in in the tuning of pipes, um as well as calling attention to us and and and starting our tunes. Um and then Shan Boyle uh marches with Finbar to um at the front of the band. For the most part, all the pipers are playing the sum at the uh playing the same tune at the same time, but um on some on some of our tunes, and and it's common across um many pipe bands, is you will add in harmonies. Um so you'll have either one or two pipers, depending on the size of your band, uh, playing, I suppose, an alternative piece of music along with the with the rest of the band. Um sounds lovely. And uh for the most part, so the drummers are playing the same beats at the same time. You have what you call a leading drummer, which is Shan Sammy Gallagher, and he will at times play solo beating and then would come together with the rest of the with the rest of the drummers, and they would come in at the same time and play together. Um Patrick, who is our bass drummer, is keeping the beat going at all times. He's the he's the loud booming noise that you hear behind it all. Patrick would also be always watching either Joe or Finbar to signify if we're going to be finishing a tune as it's uh as is Patrick that gives two large beats to signify to the rest of the band and the pipers, especially that we're coming to the end of a tune.

SPEAKER_05 5:38

But the role of the band extends far beyond performances. The Aaron Moore Pipe Band is a community band in the truest sense. It appears when Islanders gather.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

We we play quite a bit. This um I suppose right now you can catch the band maybe up to 20 times a year, and more so lately at more social events. So the dates that we all always have in our calendar are um St. Patrick's Day, Easter Sunday, um at our June Bank Holiday uh soccer tournament on the island. We are out and about, I suppose, more at social events um lately for the occasion of uh my auntie Bridey's 100th birthday. We met in the community centre that day and played a couple of tunes. Um before that we would have played at um fundraising events in the community centre or around the island, as well as the uh Rolls of Iron Moore Festival in August. Um we also get invited off the island to um the local towns and festivals as well. They are a bit more difficult to attend due to, I suppose, the availability and commitment of the band. Um a lot of the bands work in the summer in either the bars, the ferries, the Irish colleges, and with that everyone has a different schedule. So it it becomes difficult to make everything, but for the most part, we try and attend, you know, everything that we're asked to um to participate in.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

These moments are not simply performances, they're shared experiences. They are reminders that the band belongs to the community, and the community belongs to the band.

SPEAKER_08 7:23

We're a community band, I suppose, at the end of the day, and we try our best to turn up for as many events as we probably prop as we possibly can. It could maybe just be one piper that can make it, and then it could be eight pipers. So it just depends on the day what you get out to do. And I mean, when we when we turn out as a band, we love turning up together because we just have such crack together. We just really we're we're in it because we enjoy it. Um, but then it's just lovely to turn up for the community as well, Patrick's Day, and then we go back to the hall and um and then I mean you're you're called on for any numerous events, you know. And last year was a pretty busy year. Now there was all sorts of different things going on. There was the there was celebration in the church, and then there was the Rosa Trilit Rosa Baron Moore Festival. Um, and then there was Erigal. We climbed Erigal last year. Now I was kind of in a bit of trouble because I wasn't here when that happened. Um but they still talk about the time I didn't turn up. Um but that was another great day out for the band as well. Um yeah, but I think I think yeah, the community does appreciate us turning up to events, you know. It it just creates a bit of noise, I think, that people pay attention to really.

SPEAKER_05 8:39

For generation, the pipe band has accompanied Aaron Moore through moments of celebration and remembrance. The sound of pipes has marked important moments in the lives of island families.

SPEAKER_08 8:49

Yeah, when I first started, I remember I remember my first day out with the band, and it was probably the Aaron Moore Festival over in Lab. And I remember just feeling so awkward because all of the band members had their uniforms, but I was just literally after starting with them for the first time, myself and my brother Noel. And the two of us were the two that were just wearing our normal clothes, and everybody else had a full uniform on. So, as awkward as we felt, just being there out with them for the first time, we were even more awkward because we didn't even look like the band, we weren't dressed the same as them or anything. And that were, I remember that was outside the restaurant piping up that street. And then um, it was probably those of our normal, it was probably that festival that we played with them then every year. Um, and any kind of different community events that were on, like if there was anything on in the hall, or if there was a marquee in, or if they were if there was some any kind of a big community event, the band are literally pulled out to play a few tunes and make a bit of noise. And that's what we did. Yeah, for years, that's what we did, and that's what we're still doing. I think you know, it it's hard because even even in relation to trying to get people out, well, first of all, to participate in anything that's happening, or um, any of the events that are happening, or even just to get people for rehearsals and for practices. Like, you know, everyone's on a different schedule, everyone's at a different timetable, some people are working and can't turn up, some people aren't working and don't turn up. There's all sorts of different reasons why people can't turn up. And it's been a even to get a full band together is rare. So we're trying to have as many practices as we can so that as many people can make some of the practices at least. But I I would actually say if we were all unemployed and we were paying we were meeting for five hours a day, we'd be the best band in the world, I'd say. But it's just hard to get together, I suppose. You know, now we try when it comes to different community events, we try to make a big effort. But even as recently there as the um the football tournament that was on, you know, sometimes it's two pipers that turn up, sometimes it's six. You know, it just depends on who's about and who's able to make it and people trying to get time off work. And so it's a struggle. It is hard, you know, to try and turn up at everything. But we try.

SPEAKER_05 11:07

The Aaron Moore Pipe Band did not appear overnight. Like many island traditions, it grew from movement, migration, and the connection between people separated by distance. The story of the band is also the story of Aaron Moore itself, a story shaped by people who left, people who returned, and people who carried pieces of home with them wherever they went. Here is Princess Mecca Ward.

SPEAKER_06 11:30

Well, the the the band officially started, I suppose, uh in 1933, but there was piping on the island before that. And um I suppose the piping tradition uh came from the emigration. And um a lot of the the young people, especially from Iron Moore, would have emigrated to Scotland, and they would have um gone to um potato farms in Scotland, and uh while they were there, I suppose they uh they learned the pipes and they took the piping tradition back to to Ironmore. So there were some very, very, very accomplished papers um before the band ever started. Um thinking of Michel, Mickey, Begg, just people like that who were who were brilliant papers. Then the the the the pipe band came together officially in about 1933 and um uh it uh it got off to a very, very good start. Uh it was it fell away a little bit during the Second World War. And during the Second World War, I suppose um it wasn't as as strong as it had been before. Uh it got revived and kept going in the uh 50s and 60s. There were different times during the history of the band that we were very, very strong, there were loads of pipers, and there was other times when they were down to maybe two or three pipers, and it was a struggle to keep the band going. Um it before the before Alec Brown arrived in Iron Moor, the band was probably uh in a low point. I suppose there were only maybe five or six people in the band at that stage that were regularly playing, and then as I say, it blossomed uh for a few years. And uh COVID gave us another hit then and we it kind of put us back a little bit. So we're at the minute we're in a kind of a rebuilding uh mission at the minute, and we're gradually building the band up at the minute now. So we have um we have about 15 players, and then we have about four pipers who are in training. Uh so some of the young ones were getting them trained up and uh hopefully we'll we'll get we'll get back up to the heights again.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Keeping a pipe band alive on an island comes with unique challenges. Young people leave for education, they leave for work, and sometimes the very people who have learned the tradition are the ones that must leave to build their life elsewhere.

SPEAKER_06 14:13

One of the one of the big problems we had uh always was like, you know, we would get the young people in and we get them in when they were 10, 11, 12, and we would train them in the drums, we train them in the pipes, and they would play until they were 17 or 18, but then they would go to college and they would leave home. Some of them would some of them in the past would have emigrated. Not so much emigration now. Most of them stay in Ireland now at this stage, but they might go to uh Dublin or Letter Kenny and they might not be always at home. And uh between college and work and moving away, we would spend five, six years building these one young young people up, and then suddenly they would disappear again. And that that was one of the the big challenges that we have, and we always have it. I suppose coming from an island like we do, and a small population, um, it's it's always going to be uh uh one of the challenges we have uh to maintain the band. But you know, thank God we're we're we're doing well, and as I say, we're in a rebuilding stage at the minute.

SPEAKER_05 15:17

But leaving Aaron Moore has not always meant leaving the tradition behind. The music often travels with the people.

SPEAKER_06 15:24

That often happened, um, and especially in Chicago, and uh we would have had um people um uh that that were the band here, and actually some of the people who were instrumental in forming the band way back in the 30s and 40s, that who subsequently emigrated and joined the Shannon Rovers and became uh um the Shannon Rovers pipe band in later in uh Chicago. And uh so it wasn't as if they were leaving the pipes always behind them, and sometimes they would uh play in other places as well. Um and something that's that that that's very important to us too. We've had we we sometimes get uh pipers who used to play when they were children, and then they come back later on, and we're delighted to say that we have one or two that are that are rejoining the band. Uh they learned when they were young and then now and then they left it for maybe seven, eight, ten years. We have one girl now who's rejoined the band, and she she she she's 20 years out of the band. She's could she come back and uh she's she's flying it, she's having she's uh she's no bother at all, and she's it's like she never left. So that's a that's a good thing as well.

SPEAKER_05 16:37

Every tradition has moments when a new person arrives and changes its direction. For the Aaron Moore Pipe Band, one of those moments came with Alec Brown, a world-class piper, experienced musician, and teacher. Alex brought new energy to the band that always had carried tradition but needed new momentum. His influence was not only in the music, it was in the confidence he gave young people. It was in creating excitement around the band, and it was in helping a new generation believe that this tradition belonged to them.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

So originally I began learning the chanter, which is the first step in becoming a bagpiper, um, probably when I was eight or nine years old. And at that time, the the teachers were Oni Green, uh Patty O'Neill, and James Gerald O'Donnell. So I was learning from Oni Green, and he had myself and a couple of other youngsters starting with the basics. And we used to meet every week in uh in the Culture Lam centre, and we also had our the drummer, the learner drummers next door um learning the drums as well. For one reason or another, probably as a as the time went on and commitments with school, I kind of fell away from practicing. Um at that point, I never actually made it, I suppose, or progressed onto the bagpipes. So I I fell stagnant for a couple of years. And in I think 2007 or 2008, the Brown family moved to the island. And Alec Brown, who had been a world-renowned piper and um band leader, um became keen and interested in in the revitalization of of the pipe band. Um there's always been a pipe band on the island, I suppose. At that time, maybe the numbers were a bit um a bit smaller, and um he wanted to start lessons with the youth of the island, which he did. And at that time, my dad, Jerry, and my papa Andrew had heard Alec piping um either in the bar or or out in public. And I suppose in time from from getting to know Alec, the two of them were very, very adamant that I should return to uh piping and and to learn from Alec. So I did. And I think at that time we might have had maybe upwards of 20, 20 kids learning the chanter. Um at that time, I think I was probably 15, 16. Um, but we would have had kids from the age of five to eighteen, I think, at that time, probably learning learning music. Um so I progressed onto the bagpipes.

SPEAKER_05 19:14

For many members, Alex's greatest contribution was not simply improving the band's sound, it was creating a sense of belonging. He made young people feel like they were not just students, they were members of something important.

SPEAKER_08 19:27

Yeah, it was great. It probably came at a time when there needed to be more injection put into the band as such. Like the band has always been there. As far as I can remember, the band has always been there. But there's there was times when the band was more prominent and more um out there than other times. And I wasn't really around at that time when Alec would have got into the band as such. So all we knew basically was that um Maria was home and her husband Alec was a piper, and their their family were moving to Aaron. That's really all we knew. And um Alec then joined the band, and I wasn't involved at that time. That's the time when I was off um not playing with the band at that stage. And I came back then. Um one of the first practices that I would have had with the band was over in Cleans, um, the pub over in Afrit. And um I think that was at a dance or something. I can't really remember, to be honest with you, but um and then there was different events and stuff that we would do, like we would do the at Burton Port Festival and the festival in Dunlo and Rafo, and there was different kinds of events that we would meet up and play at. But Alec, I suppose, got a whole load of more young people to come to join. And there was big interest in the band at that stage. Now, people are coming and going the whole time to the band. Like, you know, at the minute we do have new people and we do have young people who are learning the pipes. Um, but it it's hard to keep people here because with there's a lot of people coming and going. People are leaving Iron, people are moving home. So um yeah, this Alec was an important part of the band, and he is missed. And then there was Danny Nail as well. Now Danny Nail would have been over the band, like it would have been Danny Nail that my dad would have been in contact with when I would have joined the band for though for though. And um the two of them, they were very important people in the band. And um yeah, there's just there's been a few pipe majors down down the lines that I so we nail Naley would have been a my pipe major, Alec was my pipe major, and Joe. That's the three pipe majors that I was under. And I think Patty Gonal was in there somewhere as well as a pipe major. But it's hard work to keep the band going, and you really are depending on people. To put the work in and people to turn up, I suppose.

SPEAKER_05 22:04

Alec's influence reached every part of the band. He modernized the music, he challenged the members to improve, and he helped to create a standard that continues today.

SPEAKER_06 22:14

Well, it's it's very hard to underestimate the influence that Alec Brown had. Alec Brown was uh from Fife in Scotland, and he was uh he was a soldier, he was a military man, and he um he spent uh most of his working life um moving from place to place and uh abroad and uh um his wife uh uh Maria Maria's people came from Iron Moor, and it was she who who wanted to move home when all the when all the um the travelling was finished. So they moved they moved home about 17 or 18 years ago, and uh Alec was a very, very special man. He was everybody's friend on the island. He was um he would talk to friend and stranger, and uh the minute you met Alec, you you you felt as if you knew him all your life, and he was an incredibly generous man with his time, and he would he would spend time, he would bring the young people and older people like myself down to his house and spend time training us up. He was also one of the top pipers in the world. He was he he played he played pipes all over the world. We were incredibly fortunate that one of the one of the best pipers uh anywhere um came to live in Ironmore and he really, really, really energized and revitalized our band that time when he when he when he arrived. Um from a repertoire point of view, he widened the repertoire, bringing in um you know, modernizing it. Some some of the tunes that we'd had been playing up to then were tunes that had been played for 40 years and hadn't changed. And he brought a lot of new tunes and a lot of new ideas into the band, and uh even the way we play, you know, some bad habits had had had crept into our playing and whatnot, and our marching and our dress and whatnot. And it was great to have a professional, a real professional come in and and and take us on. Yeah, so uh it's I it can't be underestimated the influence he had on us, and and most of the band that we have today um learned or relearned their their music under Alec Brown, and we were we were just we were just devastated when we lost him in uh 2023. Alec died in July, and uh we were we were to visit Beaver in September, so it was only about maybe six-seven weeks before our trip to Beaver, and uh and and suddenly we lost we lost Alec. So we were we were we were we were all over the place and um I think um it was our it was our uh drum major Finbar Gallagher who really stood up and and uh pulled us all together. I remember we had a we had a meeting uh down in down in um Early's Bar, I'm sure you know it, Kayla's Cherry Early's Bar, and we had a meeting and we said we'll have a meeting for half an hour. I think the meeting went on for about five hours and we reminisced and we talked about the future and we just didn't know what was going to happen. But luckily, Alex's brother, uh, came filled his shoes and uh came with us to Beaver that time. So that was a great, great relief. But it it just it shook us, it shook us to the core when we lost him.

SPEAKER_05 25:51

The trip would continue, but it would now carry a different meaning. The band was no longer simply traveling to perform. They were carrying the memory of the person who had helped rebuild them.

SPEAKER_06 26:56

We were we were over the moon to get the uh the invitation. We would have known some of the beaver crowd, some of the beaver islanders who had visited Iron Moor, some of us in the band um would be distant relations of some of the people who had emigrated. Um's ancestors and the pipe major's ancestors and Kayla's ancestors would have been Greens, and they would have emigrated uh to Beaver Island uh uh shortly after the famine. And there was a great, great sense of excitement before we went out to Beaver Island. Um for us it was it was it was uh it was more than just a trip away, it was kind of a reconnection with people who were very, very um how would you say it is like uh dear to us in uh in a way that the people that we uh we wanted the form of connection with. People maybe we thought that we didn't know um as well as we should. We had all heard the stories of of what happened uh uh uh when when when the when the islanders left Iron Moor and when they when they when they when they travelled to America and found their way to Beaver Island. And we'd we'd all heard the folklore and we knew the stories. They had been they had been uh always in in the background and we had learned them when we were young and we'd we'd always known about it. But to actually go and reconnect and to see the places, and I remember myself when I was there, I I myself and my cousin Joe, we we we went to to visit Green Lake and Greentown, and um we we were looking at some of the photographs, and we said that looks like so and so, and that looks like so-and-so, and it was great to make that connection. Um, it was a sad trip, it was a sad trip for us. And um Alex's wife and children came with us, and I don't know how they managed it. Um they had lost their father and their husband um only six weeks previous, and uh I I I really don't know how how they found the courage to do it, um, but they came with us, and I think for us when we went to Beaver, there were two things there was the celebration and the reconnection with um our extended cousins, uh, and also I think we wanted to make Alec proud. And I think um all the way through that trip in 2023, I think he was he was on our shoulder, and I think he was with us all the time. Uh, before we arrived in the in the port in St. James, uh we had a little ceremony in the boat and we threw a a wreath out. I think we tried to remember him at every every time we played. Uh and it it it was sad, but it was reaffirming too, I think, the welcome that we got, and I think also the understanding that we found amongst the people in Beaver, that they realized, I think that we had gone through just an incredible tragedy for us only a few weeks beforehand. And I think that we all realized that that the people who we were meeting were aware of that, and I think that gave us a lot of comfort as well.

SPEAKER_05 30:17

The trip had already become something meaningful, but losing Alec transformed it. The band would arrive on Beaver Island carrying both excitement and grief.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

We went international in 2023. We were uh we were gratefully um invited to to to travel out to Beaver Island to the uh Emerald Isle Irish Fela. Um I had known a little bit about the festival just through, I suppose, our our our relationships with with folks on the island. But when we were invited out, we were just, I think, stunned and excited and nervous. And you know, there was a lot of planning that went into that, not just logistically, but we wanted to go out and you know make a real impact. Um so our pipe major at the time, Alec Brown, had compiled a whole new set list, I suppose, of of tunes for us to learn. We had about 18 months of of a lead-in time, so we um we had a lot of you know, seemed like a lot of time, but I think as due to I suppose the nature of the band and and our commitments, it it was difficult at times to get everybody together, but we knew the you know the how big the occasion was and um and what we needed to to bring to the island. Um so with that trip, we we combined uh a couple of days in in Chicago to to join our families and friends there as well. Um so I suppose leading up to our our travel to Beaver Island, we were working hard and excited, and you know, there was a lot of preparation and talk about this massive event. Um unfortunately, um in July of 2023, our pipe major Alec Brown um had a heart attack while competing at a festival in Northern Ireland and unfortunately passed away. So the that really shook not just the band but the whole island and and diaspora and further afield, Alec was a world-renowned piper and member of the Black Watch in the British Army. He led many pipe bands in Scotland, and you know, when he moved to the island, it was such a revolutionary moment, I suppose, for the for the band on the island. And he was so involved in you know the he was he was so um invested in the band and and the success of the band. And this trip to Beaver Island was you know massive for him because he he understood the the scope of the festival and what we needed to bring to it. And when he passed away, it was about six weeks before we were due to travel to America and just completely floored every single one of us. Um his wife and his daughter and his son are members of our band as well. Maria and Trees are are are pipers and Callum's a drummer. So there was a lot of uncertainty, there was a lot of everybody looking at each other for guidance and where do we go from here? And um I suppose within within a week of Alec passing, we had his funeral, and uh we were I suppose gathered with Alec's family and friends and some of the members of our community. And Alec's brother Tam Brown, also a world-renowned piper and uh more recently uh adjudicator, announced to us that he was going to travel with us to Beaver Island and for want of a better word, hold our hands while we were there. So that really, I suppose, grounded us. We knew there was somebody to lead us and to take us there and to see us through it. Um so we had six weeks uh just after the after the death of Alec, where we were concentrating so hard on getting everything right for this trip, not just for our sake, but for for Alec's sake, um as well as as well as the people on Beaver Island who were so eagerly waiting for us to arrive.

SPEAKER_05 34:06

The journey itself became part of the story before reaching Beaver Island. The band paused to remember Alec.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

So we had we had about six weeks of intense um playing and practicing and and getting everything to the to the standard we needed um to to to go to Beaver Island. So we left here um I believe two days before the before our arrival on Beaver Island, and we had a night in Chicago, which was busy. We um, you know, we didn't we didn't rest when we got to Chicago. We our first day in Chicago we all gathered um in Rosemont near O'Hare Airport and we played in a public park and we had people stopping and taking videos of us and watching us and we were, I suppose, to the last moment honing honing the craft. Um the following day we all got on a 50-seater coach from Chicago at five in the morning and travelled north to Michigan or to Charleboy where we got the boat across. Um I suppose while we were on the on the Emerald Isle, we were you know, everybody was excited and we were getting changed into our our kilts and our our uniforms and we were tuning our pipes. Um shortly before we docked uh on Beaver Island, we had a moment where the the boat stopped and members of the festival committee, I think it might have been, um, had had presented a wreath, and I I will be corrected on this, but I think it was um it was plants and and nature that was native to Beaver Island. And we had a a quiet ceremony where the where the wreath was was tossed over the boat and we played a tune for Alec. Um and actually what was very nice about that was so many of the locals got on their boats and came out to meet us, I don't know, out in the harbour somewhere. Um so I think we were surrounded by maybe eight, eight other boats um with friends and family from from Beaver Island, you know, to be there with us for that. Um so we had to quickly spring into action and uh you know we arrived on the we were docked, and um I think what was what was special about this was that they arranged for the every all the passengers to get off the boat first, um, and the last to come off the boat were the with a pipe band. Um so where they where they actually take the cars off, I believe, is where we came off. Um so they lowered the door and um there must have been hundreds of people, you know, waiting for us on the on the dock. And um as the door was lowered, you know, we were seeing everybody that was there, and everybody was cheering and clapping, and we marched off, and the tune we marched off to is was one of Alec's favourite tunes, it's called La Bombe. And we got onto the ferry dock and we formed a circle. And I suppose at that moment I you kind of start looking around at people, some people you know, some people you've never met, and everybody's crying. And you're trying to hold in your emotions. I I know for a fact we were all trying to hold in our emotions. Um, and I I spotted a couple of friends of mine that had um pins badged onto them with a picture of Alec on it. And you know, there were so many, I suppose, different little nice touches that were that were added for our benefit. And all these people were wearing a badge of Alec, and many of them had never met him before. And we finished that set of tunes and we stopped. I think everybody just started everybody dropped their instruments and started crying and hugging. And I think that was kind of a right, we've made it. We've we've hit our first hurt, like we've got over our first hurdle. And uh it was just such a special moment on on that on the pier where you know everybody piss people were coming up to us, strangers were coming up to us just saying how amazing it was, and you know, they were welcoming us onto the island. There were school kids with banners, there was, you know, there was people flying flags everywhere. And um it was just a really special moment to to to arrive on the island, despite all the emotion and I suppose heartache of the the six weeks previous. Um I think it just culminated in that moment, and you know, that was to this day that was one of the the you know most special memories I think that I would have had of that weekend, and I would I would safely say it for for a lot of the rest of the pipe band as well.

SPEAKER_05 38:20

For the people waiting on Beaver Island, the arrival of the Aaron Ward pipe band representing something larger than a performance. It represented history returning home. For the musicians on board the ferry, it was a moment they'll never forget.

SPEAKER_07 38:35

It's definitely one of my fondest memories in the band. Uh we we obviously we gathered in in Charlevoy and and we got off it. It was a f it was a pretty long bus journey up from Chicago. I think we were on the road for about eight hours with a with us an hour stalk in between in Grand Rapids. But we got there and just this excitement really had us all. Um we were buzzing on the ferry crew, we're just taking our luggage and putting it all onto the bags. And uh we the only thing we had was our our instruments and uh and our uniforms. So we loaded the ferry in our in our normal clothes and our civils as we would call them, and uh we went and you know when we were about maybe 45 minutes into the crossing, um we decided it was like, well, okay, we probably should start getting dressed here. Uh and quickly realized that there was two toilets on the on the ferry. And it was it was quite difficult to to get uh to get in there and to it it takes quite a while. At the best of days, it probably takes about half an hour to put on your your gear. So we probably wasn't uh we weren't probably uh best uh best equipped. What we'll know for this time is to the the kilts will be on before we get on to any ferry this time. But um yeah, we were we're coming over, we were playing tunes for some of the people on the boat and we were just practicing, but they they were loving it. And uh the time came then, the the island came into sight and the crew were telling us yes and yeah, so we just go around this boy now and we're we're coming into the to the harbour, you know, and we'll be docking in about twenty-five minutes or so. So we started getting our instruments ready and we went downstairs onto the cargo deck or to the car deck and uh lined up and the the boys were doing their things, tying up the boat and things like that. But we couldn't we couldn't hear anything. We couldn't we couldn't see anything because the ramp was up. Um we were told by uh it was Alex brother that came with us in in his stead just not to hit a drum, not to head a note on the pipe or nothing. It's just like they're just soaking in basically. And uh I suppose then uh the the guy that was putting down the door he says, Are you ready? And then that's when we struck up. And we were all like I suppose we were talking as a drum core. I wasn't really talking to the pipes, but uh as a drum corps we're saying is like alright, there's gonna be people here, there's gonna be a few people in the pier here. There's gonna be videos basically, and and we want to sound pretty good, so let's be really tight with the rolls and just watching Callum's drum at all time that we're hitting we're not out of time or whatever. And uh the door came down anyway, and we we hit that first roll, and you could just hear a cheer behind us uh be outside, outside the ferry boat, and as the door as the ramp came down, you just seen hundreds and hundreds of people there, and it was just it I I still get shivers down my spine thinking about it. And I'm so like you know, we're we're we'll be heading there shortly again, and I'm so jealous of the people that are going there that hasn't hasn't experienced that. Did they get to experience that for the first time again? Um and I know it'll still be it was for for us it'll still be really special and it'll be um it'll be it'll just be an amazing, amazing um experience again. But uh I think that first time is is is pretty cool. Um but then we walked out and sure the clay and just went absolutely everywhere because everybody was just so taken aback by the by the occasion. Uh it was just basically just try and walk forward and and but everybody's nobody's eyes were on drums or nobody's eyes were on pipes or notes or anything like that. It was everybody was looking around and you know you seen people cheering and and laughing and you seen people crying even just I suppose it really showed the the the magnitude of the the occasion for for the people on Beaver Island as well, uh as well as us. So and yeah, you just just felt like you were you were walking into history uh as you walked off the boat. It was a really, really, really special, uh special memory.

SPEAKER_05 42:28

That moment captured something much bigger than a performance. It represented two island communities separated by thousands of miles, but connected through generations of family, friendship, and tradition.

SPEAKER_06 42:40

Oh, that was I think the uh everyone I think would say that was the highlight. Uh the the bow of the boat came down, and I remember our our flag bearer, um young Sean Saylor. And he's he's he's the the real leader of our our band, Sean Saylor. And he he he when the boat when the when the bow went down and when he seen the crowd, all he just said was wow, and uh it was a wow. You know, it's not often you get a welcome like when we got uh there. So that was a massive highlight. There was also there was also a lot of fun. We went out um and you know, we were sad going out, but we did have a lot of fun. You know, Alec uh Alex was a was a man who who was full of fun himself. Absolutely full of fun. And uh he would appreciate it and he would have wanted us to have fun. So I remember some of the highlights we had. We we and some of the highlights are are the things that weren't planned at all. Like we did we we we got on a fire truck and we uh played uh um the the bagpipes all all the way to the lighthouse and back, and I think that was a bit of a hit on Instagram or Snapchat or um and uh I remember the day of the Korruck races and we were down on the beach and we played a few tunes and uh things like that. were were such highlights for us. And they're they're kind of memories that we'll have forever and hopefully we'll recreate and maybe make even have better memories this time when we're going out and uh shortly.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

The welcome on Beaver Island was not simply a welcome for a visiting band. It was a homecoming for all involved.

SPEAKER_08 44:19

Yeah, some of the highlights I'd say without a doubt, the best highlight was that day landing on Beaver Island and the the ferry opening and us piping off the ferry because that was a very emotional day for everybody. We had we thought Alec was coming with us and we had Alec's family with us on the ferry and we were literally just after being out and we laid a wreath out on the water and there was all sorts of upset. And then I mean playing the pipes you can't be upset because it's not one of those instruments that you can cry and play at the same time. You can't. So we literally all had to pull it together and we had we had Alec's brother Tam. Tam came with us as well and it was great to have him um supporting us. But um it was just so upsetting for everybody because in in everybody's mind we're coming off that ferry and Alec should have been with us and he wasn't and then the gang on the pier were all ball and crying and we were all ball and crying and it was just an extremely emotional day getting off that ferry.

SPEAKER_05 45:17

The experience reinforced something the members of the band already understood. The music was never only about the people playing it. It was about everyone connected to it.

SPEAKER_08 45:28

I'd say the most I'd probably about Beaver Island was um the monument that we have here up the lighthouse road and I would have known you know from I suppose chatting to people from old like that a lot of our people were in Beaver and would have emigrated from Aaron and would have landed in Beaver and would have created a little Iron Moore community out there, I suppose. But it was lovely to be there to witness um that that that's where a lot of our ancestors are I suppose. You know there was such a huge contingency from Aaron over with us. It was kind of hard to get beyond that gang because um there was so many of our own gang there now I'm not 100% sure this time how many are managing to get out but um it was you could have been in the middle of Aaron Moore been in any of those little pubs and the Irish music and the whole failer itself was I mean, you know, there was a fiddler here and a fiddler there and there was a banjo and there was everything, everything but you could have been on Aaron Moore. It was very very similar I would say yeah very very similar and even friendly. At one stage I was walking down the street and I think I was meeting somebody for a coffee or something and I was walking up the street and I was pulling my bagpipe case behind me and somebody had stopped to to offer me a lift because they saw me pulling my case along now at the time I was chatting on the phone and I didn't hop in to have a lift but yeah very very similar friendly people islanders.

SPEAKER_05 48:07

How do you make sure the next generation carries it forward? For the Aaron Moore pipe band that question is always present but so is the determination to continue.

SPEAKER_06 48:18

I'm very very optimistic for the band um uh we we were hit by COVID we had a lot of learners in COVID and by the time covet was finished they seemed to all have disappeared and we were kind of down to um obviously Alec was gone too and we had a kind of a very we just had um um we had we had ourselves but we hadn't played together in a year or two because of COVID and a lot of the young ones had slipped away and whatnot and uh we started there I'm on the committee of the band as well and we started there about two years ago and we said right okay um once we got over our trip to Beaver and um everything we said right we had a meeting we said right okay it's all about rebuilding now and building the band up and we've put an awful lot of work into that uh to attract former members back and we were very lucky to get a few and also to train start training again the young ones and as I say um we have four four uh one's only just started now in the last two or three weeks so we have four uh new um pipers in training at the minute and that's brilliant the way I look at it is if you can get one or two starting every year um you'll be able to maintain a uh a a pipe band it is difficult it is so difficult because um some of our pipers live away from home um some of them um uh are only home maybe every second weekend some one or two of them live in around Dublin area and other others are working at home and it it is hard sometimes to get everyone together in the one place at the one time and that is a challenge we have but do you know what you have to be positive and you have to look at the bright side and you have to say look this is what we're doing and you know we're we're building up our pipe core at the minute um we hope to in the next year or two reinstate a tenor section uh tenor drum section we had a tenor drum section and it fell apart um we're hoping to get that reinstated now in the next year or two to continue to build our repertoire and um improve our own playing constantly and uh recruit new members hopefully that the well do you know what do you know what I like what I like to think is is the band will be a hundred years old in nine in 2033 which is seven years down the lines we're gonna have a massive year that year we're already planning for for a lot of fun that year and we we we would love to have the band at full strength so put about maybe between 2025 players a new tenor section going um that's our kind of long term goal or medium term goal at the minute to have that for the for our hundredth anniversary that we'll have we'll have uh a really really good band the challenges are familiar young people leave for education they leave for careers but Aaron Moore has always found ways to bring people home yeah I I don't anticipate the band um finishing up at any stage soon I mean I feel that there's such a tradition here and such a love for the pipes and drums that there's there I mean you could have said that the band was going to finish up 20 30 years ago but there just seems to be there's always a one person or two that will just keep the whole thing running along.

SPEAKER_08 51:54

And it I mean it there are so many different oh there's so many different challenges with the band and like even something as simple as us getting to Beaver Island like that in itself there's so many different challenges with that alone because I mean people are going and leaving families behind. So what do you do when I mean me I'm I'm leaving two boys behind and my husband Kia is there to pick up the pieces when I'm gone. But it's a case like we all need to book our holidays around going to Beaver. Somebody has to be at home to mind everything that's happening at home while we're heading off with our pipes under our arms. So even that and even even the recent challenge was how do we get to Dublin? You know so there's there's always different challenges ahead of us but in relation to the band I think the band the tradition has been there for so long I think there's always somebody there to bring it along there's so there's so many people that the the tradition of the band is so ingrained in us here that there we there are young ones coming up who have the same raw have the same love for the pipes and the drums as we do. And you know I play as long as I can play and as long as there's somebody to be there with but um challenges there are but there have been challenges for years and we're still here you know so you would hope you would hope that the youth will continue it you know and I do believe the band have such support here I don't think I I can't see it dying you know the the community there's so many people behind the band and there's so many people involved and so many different families involved that stem back for years that have kept the band going. And yeah I there's there's pipers out there and I know they'd be back to us. 100% they'd be back to us. They just have to come back.

SPEAKER_05 53:56

One of the strongest signs of the future is the number of young people learning today.

SPEAKER_04 54:00

Yeah I suppose in the last couple of years we've um there's been a few new members have joined the band um and and there's and there's people learning as well. We have at the minute uh three people learning the chanter I believe um which I suppose it was it was put into perspective for us at our at our recent AGM when you compare it to other bands in the country you know with much larger populations they're still they're taking in you know five or ten new learners a year so in comparison when we're taking in three it's it's it's a lot for our the population we have we have pipers that live off the island as well and and there's a big effort to uh to bring new members into the band um I give a special mention to Noreen Lawler in Dublin who's currently teaching her niece the chanter and that's you know it would be impossible for her niece to be coming up to learn the chanter at the weekends with us so it's the fact that Noreen's in Dublin and able to teach her there, you know, it's kind of fast tracking her you know her progression into the band. We have a couple of young people on the island currently learning as well and you know the hope is that we'd if they're not ready for the bagpipes you know soon but they'll still be putting a kilt on them and joining us on our outing.

SPEAKER_05 55:19

The future of the band depends not only on young musicians, it depends on the people willing to teach them.

SPEAKER_08 55:25

So when I would have been in the band years ago with um all the I'm gonna say the older men in the band and I was that little girl in the band now it's actually turned around totally and now it's more women in the band more more piper women in the band more girls in the band than men that are playing the pipes. So now we only have um pipers as in men pipers we only have Joe and Pruntius and then as female pipers then the female pipers are taken over. So watch this space we just need a few more female drummers because the drummers the drummers are the men we don't eventually oh we have Fiona Fiona's a female drummer but apart from that um yeah so it it actually do you know what anybody who anybody we're always looking for people to come and join us and we've a great little gang of teachers there that are happy to teach the drums and happy to teach the pipes and are working hard at it to keep the band going.

SPEAKER_05 56:27

How does something that began with one generation survive into the next for the Aaron Moore pipe band the answer has always been people people who teach people who return people who show up and the young people who decide that this tradition is worth carrying forward?

SPEAKER_06 56:44

Well we try and have a a practice um every a rehearsal or practice every every week um and um uh we come together um during the winter especially and we will at the start of the start of the winter we'll be looking at our um our repertoire and any new tunes we want to learn and um we will um we would uh be working on them on a kind of weekly basis. I suppose um the the year's events normally start for us around um uh Paddy's Day so that would be the first time we would be out we normally uh uh march the church and play outside the church then we would be out on Easter Sunday again and we would march to the church and then we march to the graveyard and play some tunes for the for the deceased. During the summer we normally have a hectic enough schedule sometimes we would go to some of the local festivals um and play at the local festivals and various events at home as well um for a few years now we've organized a Burns night um and we organized a burns night in January um and um this year we changed it around a little bit and we made it into St. Bridget's night um and so kind of the same thing but just have a uh and it was very very successful last year now with the Burns Night. So we would play at at um certain set um occasions during the year but then we would also play at um other occasions that can't really be predicted things like maybe a funeral or things like a wedding or um if um somebody was somebody was coming home if there was something important happening in the island very often we would be asked to play a few tunes um um for for for various occasions so we're we're fairly fairly um fairly busy the Aaron Moore pipe band survives because it belongs to the island it is not an organization that represents Aaron Moore from the outside it is something that grew from within the community itself the band reflects the people who make up the island their histories their memories their celebrations and their losses well I think the band uh is very important to the community um I think the band uh kind of accompanies the community in a lot of in a lot of ways um the band will play before football matches uh the band sometimes travels with with um with island groups uh I think the band is there for big community celebrations like St. Patrick's Day um Easter and also uh other things and the other thing about it is like the the band is the community uh it's not strangers that are that are coming in and and and playing it's it's members of the community and it's the um that that that are playing for their neighbours and for their friends so in a lot of ways you know the the the the the band is ironmore it's off iron more it's it's there there's no there's no outside influence there it's it's it's it's um it's an integral part of the community as far as I can see and uh I think that's to be seen in the way that the community supports the band and um roots for the band we were we were up in Dublin at a at a soccer final between Ireland and Austria and we were we were asked to um play the national anthem before the uh before the game started and I think uh about half the island came with us there was about four buses from Arn Moore that left the island and then there were people our more people from that were in London and in Dublin and all over that flew in to be with us and uh we have the hotel we were in in in uh in uh dublin uh was was overtaken by our moor people and uh there were very few left on the island I don't think so it's it's really uh I think something that's that's part of the community um and that like we try in every way we can to support the community to be part of community to be there in the happy days and play tunes when we're all celebrating and also to be there in the sad days and to play the laments and the sad songs whenever we're not feeling so good and I think it's it's a kind of a reflection of of the community and as I say you know the band is off the community and we are all part of the community so I think it's it's um it's got a very special place in the community in Ironmore as far as I can see.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:37

For many members the connection to the Aaron Moore pipe band began with family. For others it began with curiosity a first lesson a first tune a first time putting on the uniform but eventually individual moments become part of something larger.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:54

So it's you know it there's there's there's always costs involved but thankfully we we have a great community and we get great support from the community. I feel very lucky to be in the pipe band and I feel very lucky that I I suppose returned to the pipe band in um you know when I was a teenager when Alec was teaching um I probably would have at that time and age it would have been very easy to just put it aside or to dismiss it. I did take I call it a sabbatical from the pipe band when I was away at college and away at work and um and I I actually only re rejoined the band I think it was during COVID 2021 or 2022 I think. And we had a couple people um who had also been away that we that returned around the same time. So it's special to me. You know we have a long history in in my family and of of playing with the band and and being a part of the band. So it's important for me to continue that. At the minute I think I have three cousins in the band two cousins in the band maybe um you know and we're always we're always hoping to to bring in a few more to get some past members to come back and join us. So it's it's important for our for our you know for the future of the band um as we as we approach a hundred years of the pipe band in in the next coming years I think it's it'll be 2032 or 2033. Which isn't that long away um and when you're you know when you're looking at the the future of the band you need to you need to make sure that you have people coming behind you to to keep it going as well.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:24

It's all a part of it isn't it it's it's I suppose when there'll be people there that that when R and more is mentioned they might think of the football club or they might think the the RNL I or whatever but there'll be people out there too that think oh yeah there's a pipe band out there as well so you do yeah we definitely want to keep it going. I remember um about three years ago now sort of in around the time of of Alex's death when we had our our EGM um just to see where things were going, how how how we move forward basically I think the the general consensus at the end of it is it won't die in our watch anyway. So but it's become obviously that was a different time it's become an an awful lot more positive now to the point where we're just going to keep working at it and make sure that we leave something behind for the next generation and then then hopefully they'll take it up and do the next generation again. So I do think the idea is getting stronger population wise um because of you know because it's costly to live on the mainland now people are are finding ways to move home I did it myself so did Ashley and people are finding ways now to make a living at home rather than be abroad or or on the mainland or in Dublin or wherever the case may be. I do think they come home they might join their children might start learning chanters or or maybe they get a drum pad or whatever so I I do think it's it's get going to get easier. But we just have to kind of convey that message that it's fun to be in the pipe and it's not all hard work that we we play too and for example at Christmas there I suppose just to to do something different and to give back to to our community we went from one end of the island to the other on a on a six by eight uh sheet trailer where about eight of us squeezed into the trailer and just played Django bells the whole way over and back the island. So um that was something that had never been done before I'm pretty sure so I'm starting those little traditions and maybe kids are out watching that Santa Claus driving and the fire brigade out behind us and they might say I want to do that when I'm older so the small little things that's that that keep it going.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:11

They sound on holidays and on ordinary days they sound in celebrations and remembrances. They sound because people continue to care. And across the Atlantic on Beaver Island those same sounds remind people that the ties between communities are not always measured in distance. Sometimes they're measured in generations in stories in friendship and in the music that carries them forward.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

Thanks to Sean Gallagher, Noreen Gochran Lawler, Kayla Early and Princess Mock Award for sharing their stories and the story of the Aaron Moore Pipe Band. And a special thanks to Prince for providing the bagpipe music heard throughout this episode The Aaron Moore Pipe Band will be performing at the Emerald Isle Irish Pela in September 2026. So from Beaver Island to Aaron Moore and back again. This is the Tides That Tie The Tides That Tie is sponsored by the Beaver Island Irish Heritage Group. Music provided by Jerry Early John Gallagher Anne Conahan John Flanagan Hillary Palmer Cindy Cushman and Ruby John with special thanks to Kevin Boyle for our introduction voiceover. To learn more or support the storytellers behind the Tides That Tie, email us at TidesThattie at BIIHG.com. That's Tides that tie at BIIHG.com. Copyright 2026, Beaver Island Irish Heritage Group, all rights reserved