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Colm is a lovely fellow and a superb piper. He's played my Taylor set on several occassions, which I have enjoyed immensely.

The O'Flynn set is in good hands.

Rick

Well done. Nice to see the legacy of this set continue.

Lucky lad. Was there a video of Colm playing the set somewhere?

Lucky lad. Was there a video of Colm playing the set somewhere?

Heres one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBhB35a9Ys

RLines wrote:Colm is a lovely fellow and a superb piper. He's played my Taylor set on several occassions, which I have enjoyed immensely.

The O'Flynn set is in good hands.

Rick

Agree completely! He played and taught at this year's St. Louis Tionól, and I learned a couple of tunes off of him. Super nice lad; generous, willing to play with/teach anyone, quiet and humble. No flash, just a great musician. Can't imagine a more deserving person to take up this set.

A purely personal view, but I'm not sure if I would apply the term winner or even deserving . To my mind its a hell of a responsibility and maybe even a burden. First of all, there was at one time an issue with getting hold of a good set of pipes and getting a set of this quality could make a pipers career ,but this no longer applies . My concern for Colm is that he will always (but I hope not) be playing second fiddle to the set. There is such a huge weight of history attached to the set that there could be a danger of Colm becoming known as the piper who plays Liam O'Flynn's pipes. Only time will tell.

RORY

A purely personal view

There's a weight and a terrible responsibility attached to an instrument that well known. I said something along the same lines to the current owner of Ennis' pipes recently. Everybody has heard the instrument extensively and has its aural image imprinted. Whoever plays it, how they sound will always be weighted against that imprint. The instrument will, every now and again, make a sound to remind you in whose hands it was before. But nobody will ever sound like 'him'.

It's probably best to just look on an instrument like that as another set of pipes and get on with it. LOF didn't sound remotely like Clancy playing the same set of pipes and he didn't sound like Ennis when playing playing the Ennis Coyne. I don't think many people held that against him.

It's probably more important to listen to the piper rather than the pipes. I think Colm will be fine if we do that.

Mr.Gumby wrote:It's probably best to just look on an instrument like that as another set of pipes and get on with it. LOF didn't sound remotely like Clancy playing the same set of pipes and he didn't sound like Ennis when playing playing the Ennis Coyne. I don't think many people held that against him.

It would be great if it was looked on as just another set of pipes ,but human nature being as it is ,it is not just another set of pipes. Liam O'Flynn never had that problem taking over from Willie Clancy as Willie never made the set his own.

RORY

rorybbellows wrote:... I'm not sure if I would apply the term winner or even deserving . To my mind its a hell of a responsibility and maybe even a burden....

Entirely correct. But, I imagine he gave it a bit of thought before accepting.

And bravo to Colm for accepting the "burden". If nobody was willing to accept the responsability of taking this set, it would end up stuck in a glass case, which, in my opinion, should never happen to quality musical instruments: they should be played, heard and enjoyed.

Liam O'Flynn never had that problem taking over from Willie Clancy as Willie never made the set his own.

That's true enough, to an extend, although Clancy did a few pretty iconic recordings using it and the set did greatly shape his style during the time he had it. But it holds true for LOF playing the Ennis set: there were high expectations when he first started playing that out but people quickly got used to the idea that he sounded not like Ennis but, as someone put it, 'like Flynn playing a flat set'. That was enough, we heard the piper.

Does anybody know where the Coyne set is now? Was it also left to N.P.U., or is it being played somewhere?

is it being played somewhere?

It's in good hands. In fact I played it myself recently (as did a several others) during a pleasant backroom gathering where both an Egan and the Coyne were going together.

Here's Emmett giving it a go, making a nice job of the Groves:

I spent some hours last night listening to these fellas And it was lovely. Loads of pipers and other musicians there to listen and all went home happy.

It would be great if it was looked on as just another set of pipes ,but human nature being as it is ,it is not just another set of pipes.

They didn't treat it like any set of pipes and played LOF tunes all night and that was fine, both pipes and tunes were made to shine.

O’Flynn told a group of pipers about
a tionol where Ennis offered everyone
a turn at playing his set, Willie Clancy
among them. He said that they all sounded
like themselves filtered through that set.