Pipers enjoy Rose of Tralee and Béal na Bláth

MILLSTREET Pipe Band retuned to a familiar surroundings last Saturday and Sunday for the 57th International Rose of Tralee Festival and Michael Collins Commemoration.

The great Millstreet bastions of piped music were maintaining a long standing engagement in Tralee since its founding in 1959. Millstreet’s association began when a new festival concept replaced a carnival and the selection of a queen.

The first festival in 1959 was built around the concept on the world famous song, the Rose of Tralee, with Roses representing Tralee, London, Dublin, Birmingham and New York.

Millstreet Pipe Band were invited to perform at the inaugural festival and hackney cars transported the band members to a new beginning and a phenomenal link with the Tralee festival.

Down the through the years of both recession and boom, Tralee has carved up a distinctive place for itself on welcome thousands into the town. The Millstreet Band are part and parcel of the mardi gras atmosphere that unfolds in the Kerry capital each August.

Following the Tralee parade, it was home before they hit the road again on Sunday and, in inclement weather, they delivered a recital at the Michael Collins Commemoration in Béal Na mBláth in the presence of guest speaker President Michael D Higgins.