jlee's blog

On Sunday September 21st the FDNY Pipes and Drums went out for the last competition of the season. The band has had a pretty successful season so far and wanted to have a strong ending to it. We played our Quick March Medley set. The band ended up placing second, we recieved a 1st and 2nd in Piping, a 2nd in drumming and 3rd in Ensemble. The band put on a strong performance and is definitely looking forward to competing next year.

On Saturday September 20th the band played at the Great Irish Fair at Keyspan park. The fair honored Battalion Chief and President of the UFOA Jack McDonnell. To see the big picture of the band with Chief McDonnell click this link

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers a group that brings Rock to the Bagpipes is returning to the USA in September to do a show in CT. The Chilli's were kind enough to come to the States last November and put on a show that helped raise funds for the band and two of our favorite charities. We welcome them back to the USA and look forward to seeing them again. For more info on their show click the link below. 

The Pipes in the Valley Celtic Festival 

 The Red Hot Chilli Pipers

The Telegraph Office

The Telegraph Office, a Midtown NYC Internet Marketing firm, with whom the FDNY Pipes and Drums partnered last year to re-create our web site, donated $16,716 worth of work towards our new site.

The new web site, which is far more user-friendly and easy to navigate than the old one, has been very successful for us. The number of requests for band appearances has increased by over 50% in the last 10 months.

We now have the ability to post current events and news ourselves, rather than depending on a webmaster as we did in the past. This allows us to keep the most updated material available to you.

Overall, our experience with the Telegraph office has been nothing but excellent. If you are looking for a good Internet marketing firm, we’d recommend them.

To visit their site for more info click the following link The Telegraph Office 

The FDNY Pipes and Drums Competition band took 2nd place on Sunday July 20th at the Rockland Feis in New York. The band went out with 7 Pipers, and 5 Drummers. This was the first time out in a while playing our Medley, after a good amount of work and dedication the band put on a good performance.  Unfortuntely during our performance on the field the batteries died in our camera so we posted a video of us running through the Medley just prior to going on. We hope you enjoy it!

Rockland Medley

The FDNY Pipes and Drums has donated money to the Oran Mor Pipe Band to help them through their tough time after their bus caught on fire and they lost a large amount of equipment and instruments. If you are interested in helping them, read the paragraph below with the information on how to do it.

This is from the Oran Mor Pipe Band:

On Saturday, June 28th, 2008, the Oran Mor Pipe Band suffered the loss of uniforms and equipment in a bus fire along I-480 near the Hopkins International Airport in Ohio. Video Link Here

There were thirty-four people on the bus, as well as all the pipes, drums, kilts, glens, ties, hose, ghillies, sporrans ………
We have received an enormous outpouring of support from around the US and abroad, and would like to say thank you for all your concern and generous offers of equipment and uniforms. Much of the past week has been spent assessing our losses, as well as absorbing the true shock of what happened to us, and how close we came to a much worse tragedy. We now have a much clearer idea of where we are and what we need to accomplish before we can successfully continue the competition season and ultimately head off to the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, in less than a month.
The Oran Mor Pipe Band is a 501(3)c (not for profit) organization. As such, we never have large sums of money "on hand". The trip we were on, when the fire struck, was a costly one for us, leaving our financial resources depleted, having just paid our expenses for the upcoming Scotland trip. The claims process is not quick and holds no guarantees. We are not sure how much, if any, reimbursement we will receive for our losses. We must move forward quickly to get our uniforms cleaned and our equipment repaired or replaced.

To that end, we are asking for your financial support in whatever amount that you can manage. Your donations would be tax deductible and would be acknowledged by our treasurer in writing for tax reporting purposes. Our gratitude would be endless.
Checks may be made payable to the Oran Mor Pipe Band and may be mailed to:

Betsy Douglas
3948 US Route 20
Marietta, NY 13110
Any questions may be directed to Betsy at: doug3948@alum.syracuse.edu

Thank you so much for your support.

Oran Mor Pipe Band

We have created a newsletter that will be published and sent out periodically to our loyal subscribers. We hope you will sign up to keep up with the latest events and happening surrounding the FDNY Pipes and Drums. The sign up box is located in the top header of the home page. Thanks as always for your support!

The FDNY Pipes and Drums would like to extend congratulations to Fireman Matt Doyle of Ladder 173 in Queens on passing his grueling audtion. Matt has been playing the Bag Pipes for about 12 years and yes if you can believe it he also is an Iona College alumni and did play in their Pipe Band. Again congratulations to Matt and we hope to see him at many of our events!

The FDNY Pipes and Drums is proud to annouce that we have 2 new pipers and 2 new drummers to add to our roster. Timmy Maguire of Ladder 119 in Brooklyn joins us as a Bass Drummer. Timmy has been playing the drums since his Freshman year at Iona college, where he also played the Bass. There is a rumor that he was at one point a Piper...................

James Dowdell of Ladder 174 in Brooklyn joins us as a Side Drummer, he has been playing the drums for many years and also attended Iona College where he played in their pipe band. James is no stranger to our band as after 9-11-01 he filled in many times playing the drums while our band was stretched thin. His father Kevin of Rescue 4 perished on 9-11.

David Ritchie of Ladder 27 in the Bronx has been playing the Bagpipes for 6 years and studies under the tutelage of John Bradley who is the FDNY's interim instructor. Dave was playing briefly with the DCFD Pipes and Drums in Washington, DC.

Kevin O'Conner of Engine 37 in Harlem has been a piper since the tender age of 11. He was a solo competitor in Grade 2 as a teenager and brings a great deal of talent to the band. He attended Iona as well, and was in their pipe band along side Maguire and Dowdell.

Timmy and Kevin are active members of the bands grade 4 competition unit. There is speculation that Dowdell may be coming on board to play tenor drum for the competition band as well. Again congratulations to these 4 fine men, we wish them all the best.  

The FDNY Pipes and Drums grade 4 competition unit took 3rd place at the Bonnie Brae Scottish games on Saturday June 7th. The weather was extreme as it was in the area of 97 degrees but the band went out and put on a great show in spite of this. Feel free to view our performance by clicking here FDNY Pipes and Drums Grade 4 Band