Top musicians for Ballinasloe festival in honour of piper Dinny

The Dinny Delaney Music Festival will take place in Ballinasloe this weekend, from Friday, April 28 to Monday, May 2.

The programme features some of the top names in Irish music and includes concerts, masterclasses, sessions and livestreams.

It’s named in honour of uilleann piper Dinny Delaney (1836-1919), who was born just outside Ballinasloe and was orphaned at a young age. Aged 13, Dinny caught smallpox which left him almost blind. He learned how to play the uilleann pipes from travelling musician Mickey Willis and found his role in life.

Dinny became one of Ireland’s most renowned pipers and in 1902, was the first to be recorded on the new wax-cylinder-technology.

He is renowned for composing the tune ‘Repeal of the Union’. When he played it outside Mountbellew Police station after the1916 Easter Rising, he was arrested and his pipes destroyed.

A nationwide fundraiser to have them repaired, raised more than five times the required amount.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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