Peter Laban

Peter, fifteen years old, was bitten by the piping bug when he walked into a recital by Seamus Ennis in Rotterdam in 1972. It was not until 1979, after seeing Liam O'Flynn play during Planxty's 'After the Break' tour, that he travelled to Ireland to find a set of pipes.

Early 1980, when taking piping lessons from Padraig MacMathuna at Na Piobairi Uilleann and while visiting Dan O'Dowd at his Dublin home, Peter was given the advice to visit Miltown Malbay in July and attend the Willie Clancy Summer School. For the next five years, Peter took the annual piping classes, progressing enough to be asked to play a lunchtime recital for the pipers in 1986. In the late 1980s, he taught at the summerschool for a brief spell.

From the mid 1980s onward, Peter has been playing the flat set in C. Visits to Miltown Malbay intensified by the early 1990s when pipemaker Geoff Wooff moved to the area. Extended visits eventually culminated in a move, when Peter settled in the area in 1996.

Visiting Gleeson's of Coore to listen to Junior Crehan on Sunday nights it was Tom Munnelly who told Junior, there was a piper in the house. Peter was coaxed into joining 'the band' occasionally, playing the whistle. As confidence grew, Peter later took a weekly seat on stage. Around the turn of the millennium, Peter started playing regularly with Kitty Hayes. Their occasional tunes in Gleeson's became a permanent fixture when Jackie Daly started calling them on stage each week for 'a few tunes on the concertina and the pipes,' usually finishing the spot by declaring 'They'll be good yet'.