The De la Salle Scout Pipe Band, Waterford City
Waterford City has a long tradition of Pipe Bands over the last century and half or so and the De La Salle Scout Pipe Band has played a major role in upholding that tradition.
The idea of having a band in the Scout Unit attached to the De La Salle School in Stephen St Waterford was first put to a vote at a meeting of the Scout Committee on December 15 th 1933 where it was given full support. It was further decided that it should be a Pipe Band as was the tradition in many other Scout Units in the country at that point in time. It is interesting to note that it is the only scout pipe band left in existence today.
The main aim of having a band attached to a Scout Unit at that time was to give the young scouts an opportunity to learn piping and drumming and to provide musical support for the Scout Unit when it paraded in public.
The Scout Pipe Band’s first public parade was held on May 15 th. 1934 when it lead the scouts to a mass held in the Cathedral in Waterford’s City Centre to mark St De La Salle’s Day and thus began seventy years of similar parades and public performances.
The band continues to play on many public occasions every year entertaining Waterford’s citizens and visitors. The band also continues to lead the scouts when they parade so you could say it continues to fulfil the same aim it was set up for all of those years ago.For many years the membership of the band was taken solely from the Scout Unit but in recent years membership was extended to cover the full scout community in the city and members of their families and their friends. The band is now open to boys and girls from the age of eight.
Over the years many hundreds of young boys and girls have enjoyed membership of the band. The band has encouraged many young people to develop their musical talents further and just to mention one such person, included in its ranks at one stage was Val Donegan who went on to become a famous entertainer.
Pipers from the band have played all over the world as they have lead groups of scouts on International scout events on a number of occasions resulting in De La Salle pipes being heard in many countries including Chile, Australia, Japan, Holland and Thailand.
As well as playing all over Ireland the band has performed on stage in London and has also had a number of engagements on TV including playing on “This is your life” when Val Donegan was the guest.
The band has never missed a St Patrick’s Day parade through the streets of Waterford since it was founded. In its early years it was traditional for the band to lead the parade but when the military became involved the band chose to fall back in the parade in order to continue to lead the scouts. On a number of occasions when the Waterford City parade was cancelled due to bad weather the band did its own parade through the streets of the city. In fact, on one such occasion the band actually played up the quay in Waterford during a snow blizzard.
The band uniform developed over the years. When the band was formed its members wore the full scout uniform and then in 1953 it added a saffron kilt and in later years a green jacket was also added.
Over the years the band has had its ups and downs but it is proud of the fact that it has remained intact and has functioned for every one of the seventy years. This is due to the dedication of the various people who have taken up the challenge over the years to provide piping and drumming tuition for the young people. The band is also very thankful to the half dozen or so individuals who held the position of Pipe Major over the years.
