Cullen and a Caribbean leprechaun
On St. Patrick’ Day, Cullen Kirkpatrick leads one of the smallest, shortest and most unlikely St. Patrick’s Day parades anywhere. It’s on a sun-drenched beach in Cabarete, in the Dominican Republic.
It’s a time of year when St. Patrick’s Day parades in the Philadelphia area might make their way past the reviewing stand in cold, windy weather—and from time to time in freezing rain or wet snow—climate conditions so horrendous that a band can march and play for blocks without seeing a soul along the parade route. As pipe major of Irish Thunder Pipes and Drums in Swedesburg, Montgomery County, Kirkpatrick knows all about that. He’s been pipe major since 2002, and he marched in the band for years before that.
So he’s thankful in the extreme for the opportunity to perform in a big tent at Jose O’Shay’s, a pub at seaside owned by Frank Brittingham—former owner of Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill. He’s been playing pipes in the Caribbean over the St. Patrick’s Day holidays for eight years.
“Being in a pipe band, there’s a lot going on around home. As pipe major, it’s hard to say I’m going to miss two or three parades, but I’m going to do this for as long as I can,” Kirkpatrick says. “It’s really enjoyable, and a really nice break from the winter—especially the last two that we’ve had.”
Kirkpatrick plays throughout St. Patrick’s Day, alternating with longtime Philly favorite and the local duo Two Quid (John McGillian and Dave Cohen). “Maybe the night before, we play for a set or so as people as people walk by on the beach,” he says.
Cabarete is not exactly a five-star resort, but it’s great fun.
“There’s not a lot of Irish down there, but people come out in the hundreds,” Kirkpatrick says. “Thre are a lot of Canadians and French Canadians. Americans are in the minority down there.”
For Kirkpatrick, the highlight is the St. Patrick’s Day parade along the beach. “Frank passes out a lot of plastic Paddy apparel. Everybody in the tent goes marching up the beach. He gets a local Dominican band. Sometimes he brings in these young girls who dance, and they usually have some batons and some crazy outfits going on. I’ll lead it. We’ll walk up the beach a couple hundred yards, and then we’ll turn around.”
Not exactly Conshohocken.
Kirkpatrick gives a lot of credit to Frank Brittingham for that eclectic spectacle on the beach, and, indeed, for the whole day of merry-making. Brittingham, he says, has always been a pioneer, dating back to his ownership of Brittingham’s. His great love of Irish music was well known—Irish music was a constant presence in his sprawling pub on Germantown Pike.
“When he picks up at the airport, he’s listening to Irish music in the car,” Kirkpatrick laughs. “He’s got a bigger selection of Irish music than anywhere in the United States.”
While he’s there, Kirkpatrick carries on the tradition, playing a wide selection of pipe tunes, from marches to reels and jigs and strathspeys.
The pipes—they can be cranky beasts, susceptible to changes in weather—apparently take to the Caribbean climes as well as Kirkpatrick does.
What pipes are not crazy about are sudden changes in climate, which Kirkpatrick has to deal with as soon as he got back, leading the Allentown St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“My pipes were so used to the nice, warm, humid weather, they went into shock,” he recalls. “In Allentown, it was in the high 30s, and windy. I had to do a little bit of maintenance before I could play in Allentown.”
See last week’s interview with John McGillian.
Look for Cullen in this video at about 1:08.
