Richard Parkes may play at All-Ireland

Richard Parkes, pipe-major of the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Belfast, could return to play with his band at the All-Ireland Championships at Letterkenny, Ireland, on July 3. He has not competed with Field Marshal since suffering a stroke in March of this year.

“My progress since the stroke has been very good,” Parkes told Piper & Drummer Online. “I’ve been playing with the band at practice now for a number of weeks and I played a few sets at a concert on June 18. It’s my intention to tune up with the band at the All-Ireland, for the MSR only. If everything feels right I could play, but I won’t know for sure until Saturday.”

While Parkes recovers, Field Marshal appointed Alistair Dunn as interim pipe-major. Under Dunn, the band promptly won the Scottish Pipe Band Championship in May, and finished second at the British Championships in June. Parkes has assisted with the band’s tuning and music since the season began.

Richard Parkes also stated that he returned to work part-time three weeks ago.

p|d

What do you think? We always want to hear from our readers, so please use our comment system to provide your thoughts!

Do you have news? Be sure to send your information to pipes|drums. We can’t report what we don’t know about! Please remember to support the businesses that advertise and make the not-for-profit p|d possible.