Burns Night Celebration

[tpa]

What is the tartan so many are wearing?

And what is Clan Derby? (And how would Derby be spelt in Gaelic, Darbaigh? Clann-na-Dharbaigh?)

I've been piping for Burns Suppers for 40 years now, I've never seen a swordfighting demonstration at one!

The piper is wearing the standard current Pipe Band kit, the mark of the serious competing piper the world over. From his turnout I would expect that he was a fine player. Nice set of David Naill pipes, a fine English pipemaker. (Odd, isn't it, how in piping you can nearly always tell what a Pipe Band or solo piper will sound like just from seeing a photo of them.)

Glad you all had a great time.

My first Burns Supper is tonight, with the band, then I have another tomorrow, solo. I'll try to get a photo of one or both, it's not easy to do, get photos when you're piping!

I’ll leave the Derby in Gaelic question to any Gaelic speakers. Clan Derby is a group of Scots living in Derbyshire UK, mainly from in or around Derby town itself. There is a Facebook Page “Clan Derby Members”.
The members gather for or attend Scottish themed or related events and ones with a charitable intention such as this one from a previous post of mine on this forum.

The piping sounded good to me but you can listen to an extract of it that I posted on the Clan Derby Members page or a longer version of it here and judge for yourself here. The guests as well as the haggis got piped in, and he played several times through the evening as well.

As to the sword fighting, I’ll post a video and a couple of pictures in the appropriate section. They gave a demo fight and then with the aid of a couple of “volunteers” demonstrated some of the more lethal moves. No one got hurt!

I deliberately avoided mentioning the kilts, but since you asked, here goes. The tartan is called Freedom and as far as I can ascertain was commissioned by the Gold Brothers of Edinburgh who run Heritage of Scotland (no comment). The tartan does not exist in the tartan register. At present, it seems only to be available through Heritage either direct or though eBay affiliates and to be woven and manufactured in PV by a single, presumably Pakistani, supplier, who has yet to learn how to make kilts properly.

Two years after getting involved with Clan Derby and multiple suggestions that I might get a suitable Freedom kilt, I succumbed and ordered one. When the third one arrived with an offset front apron, I phoned Heritage and asked if they could guarantee one with a front apron which was symmetrical about the centre line and the answer was a definitive NO. I gave up and kept it, primarily for the material, so that at some stage I can take it apart and get it made up properly. I got a suitable discount from the seller.

Aside from the fact that it was me taking the pictures, that is why you won’t see a picture of me wearing it, if I can avoid it.