Former band champs still keen on the pipes

Former band champs still keen on the pipes

28 June 2017

PIPING is in the blood of Ballynahinch duo Joe McAdam and Samuel Woods.

The pair recently attended the recent Craigavon and District Pipe Band Championships as spectators and not many who spotted them would have known that in 1949, they were members of the triumphant Dromara Pipe Band crowned All-Ireland Champions.

The 72nd All-Ireland Pipe Band Championships will be held this Saturday at Lurgan Park and 68 years from their triumph, it is believed Joe and Samuel are the only surviving members of the Dromara band which wowed the judges at at Balmoral in Belfast.

The duo competed in the first All-Ireland competition in 1946 in Dublin and three years later helped make piping history when Dromara lifted the coveted championship.

The members of the victorious 1949 winning band included Hugh Steele, Irvine Woods, J M  Spence, S J Spence, James A Campbell, Victor McManus, S McManus (Pipe Major), M Johnston, S M Woods, R Nelson H Nelson, J Maguire, R S Dickson, W W Woods, S J McManus, J McAdam, H Murray, J B McDowell, W J Barlow, A Sherlock and S McDowell.