The Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band was the first all-girls pipe band in the Maritimes, and started a trend that was to sweep the province of Nova Scotia. According to the founding piping instructor, Pipe Major Fraser Holmes, it was widely believed to be the only girls’ pipe band east of Montreal.

In 1948, Eveline Dunbar, a young school teacher from Lorne, Pictou County, and an accomplished Highland dance teacher, with students in New Glasgow, Westville, Stellarton and Thorburn, had been invited to take her dancers to perform at the Pictou County Exhibition. When they arrived, however, they found that the promised piper had not shown up. The dancers had to make do with piano and/or fiddle accompaniment. When they were finished performing, Eveline made the comment that her group would be back next year, but with their own piper.

One of her dancers was Eva Holmes, the daughter of Pipe Major Fraser Holmes of the Pictou Highlanders Pipe Band. Eveline spoke to him about the problem they had encountered at the Exhibition, and asked if he would be willing to teach some of the girls to play the pipes. Pipe Major Holmes agreed.

Chanter lessons began in the fall of 1948, and Pipe Major Holmes led fourteen girls through their paces. Some of the girls, however, dropped out of the class and by the spring the group had been reduced to five. Small in number, and small in stature, the five little girls were determined to become pipers. Still on chanters, they performed in a concert in Wallace and another in New Glasgow designed to raise funds to help get the band up and running. Drummers taught by Drum Major John Nicholson joined the troop right after New Year’s.

Local newspaper accounts provide a small taste of the excitement the band generated in the town as fund raising events were held to buy instruments, which duly arrived - first the pipes purchased in Scotland at an enormous cost of $75.00 per set, followed by borrowed snare drums, a bass drum, and then by tenor drums, also purchased from Scotland. In 1949, the young pipers returned to the Pictou Exhibition with Mrs. MacLeod, fulfilling the vow she had made the year before. They could hardly be called a band at that point, but they were well on their way to becoming one.

Major C. I. N. MacLeod of Sydney, recently arrived from Scotland, and Gaelic advisor to the provincial Department of Education, was called upon to adjudicate the girls in the fall of 1949 whereupon he announced that Faye MacKie should be named the band’s first pipe major. The band’s eight pipers, five drummers, and drum major gave their first public performance as a band at the 75th anniversary of the town of New Glasgow in 1950 with each girl wearing her own tartan kilt. Thirteen members of the band attended the summer school at St. Ann’s Gaelic College. That fall, the number of girls in the band program had risen to more than twenty as pipe band fever began to sweep the town.

The Ceildih Girls' Pipe Band circa 1950

In its first year, the Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band performed at the 12th Annual Gaelic Mod in St. Ann’s, Cape Breton. The girls performed three or four times each day during their stay at the Gaelic College. Their first duty was to travel to the airport in Sydney to perform for Sir Charles Hector Fitzroy MacLean, Chief of the MacLeans of Duart and Morvin, who was coming to participate in the Opening Ceremonies at the Mod. Sir Charles appeared to be quite taken with the young musicians, and posed with them for photos that appeared in the media across the province. The band marched the length of the business district in Sydney, and a newspaper account of the day tells how the crowds lining the streets greeted them with deafening applause. The report went on to say that people who saw the girls’ band in that parade went to the Mod for the expressed purpose of hearing them perform again.

The next day, the girls played for the Official Opening of the Mod. They were thrilled to play in concert with the RCAF Pipe Band from Montreal, under the direction of Pipe Major J. Laurie, who were also on the afternoon’s program of entertainment. The Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band’s very first competitive effort was rewarded with the Wee MacCrimmon Cup, symbolic of the Maritime Junior Pipe Band Championship. The band’s performances during Mod Week inspired Gaelic College Director Rev. A.W.R. MacKenzie to start a band of his own.

The Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band performed at the Central Fair in Truro to mark the town’s seventy-fifth anniversary, and once more inspired a group of people to found a local band, the Truro Girls’ Pipe Band. The Ceilidh band also performed at the Winter Fair in Amherst.

On Wednesday, September 6th, they performed at a Scottish church service at Caribou that marked the opening of a four-mile stretch from Pictou town to the PEI Ferry Terminal, the first section of the proposed Trans Canada Highway in the province of Nova Scotia. After the service, the band performed in front of the church, and then led the dignitaries, including Premier Angus L. Macdonald, across the boundary line of the new section of highway.

The band later participated in a Scottish concert at the Halifax Arena. At the latter event, in addition to their pipe and drum music, the band members also showed their talents as dancers.

The founding members of the band were as follows: Pipers: Pipe Major Faye MacKie, Pipe Sergeant Rhoda Jean MacLeod, Pipe Corporal Shirley Feit, Shirley Campbell, Barbara Morrison, Janet MacGillivray, Eva Holmes, and Beverly Cameron. Their instructor was Pipe Major Fraser Holmes. Drummers: Drum Major Joan Fraser, Bass Drummer Marion MacGillivray, snare drummers Patsy MacKay, Linda Mackie, Evelyn Monck, and Ann Nicholson. The drumming instructor was Captain John Nicholson.

Others who joined the band in 1951 included Sylvia Fraser, Mary MacGuire, and Glenda Arthurs, with Diane Hiscott, Mariam Morash, Sharon Wamback, Karen Trenholm, Karen MacDonald, Lois Johnstone, Jean Grant, Shirley DeWolfe, Joan Haggart, Nancy MacDonald and Emily Feit following by 1955.

The Ceildih Girls' Pipe Band circa 1951

One of the early highlights for the band was the opportunity to perform before Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on their visit to Halifax in 1951. The band travelled to the city by train and found that rain had caused the program of entertainment to be moved inside the old Halifax Forum. The Bengal Lancers, who were to receive top billing in the outdoor concert, were unable to perform in the Forum because the ice was still frozen. To their great delight, the Ceilidh Girls’ were asked to lengthen their own display to compensate for the ones that had to be cancelled. The band’s youthful pipe major, fourteen year old Miss Faye Mackie, daughter of ‘Tiger Mackie’, was called upon to make a presentation to the Princess. When Mayor and Mrs. Dwyer of New Glasgow were presented to the Princess in the receiving line, she took the time to congratulate him and his community on the fine pipe band they had produced. In an article that appeared in The Evening News, Mayor Dwyer stated that she told him that she enjoyed the band very much. She was used to seeing and hearing pipers, but New Glasgow had added something new and colourful to a culture that up to this time was generally regarded as being letter perfect in every way. She went on to tell him that she would ever treasure a vision of the bright uniforms and sweet music of the girls’ band with which she would always associate the name of New Glasgow.

On April 25th, 1951, the band appeared in Antigonish in a Scottish concert at the St. Ninian’s Parish Centre. They returned in June, when they played in an I.O.O.F. Parade in Antigonish. They won the Junior Girls’ Band event at the Antigonish Highland Games in 1950 and 1951, and placed second in the senior event in 1952, first in 1953, and second in 1954. They won the Wee MacCrimmon Cup, and the Junior Pipe Band Championship of the Maritimes at the Gaelic Mod in 1951. They came second in Pugwash in 1953 and first in 1954.

In 1953, Joan Fraser, formerly the band’s bass drummer, took over as Drum Major. Five new members were added to the band, as follows: Shirley DeWolfe became bass drummer, and Miriam Morash, Dianne Hiscott, Sharon Wamback and Lois Johnstone joined as pipers. Joan Haggart was listed as a substitute drummer. The Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band travelled to New Brunswick where they staged a series of concerts. They were greeted by the mayor of Moncton and performed in front of City Hall. Their evening performance, which was in aid of the Moncton Home and School Association, drew a capacity crowd, the largest they had performed for so far. For nearly two hours, the band presented Highland dances, vocal selections, piping solos, piano solos, and a number of other selections in addition to their full band numbers. They closed their show with a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne”. The band performed again in Petitcodiac the following night.

The band also performed at the Nova Scotia Road Builders’ Convention in Halifax, at the Apple Blossom Festival, the Pugwash Highland Gathering, and the Antigonish Highland Games where they placed second to the RCAF Pipe Band from Rockcliffe, Ontario. They played before His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada, Hon. Angus L. Macdonald, Hon. John Diefenbaker, Kate Aitken, and Lady Baden-Powell. In July, the band was registered and incorporated under the Society’s Act of the Province of Nova Scotia.

In 1954, the band travelled to Campbelltown, NB where they performed in a fundraising concert at the Northern New Brunswick town’s hockey rink with a program of piping, band marching and Highland dancing. A newspaper clipping lists four new girls making their very first trip with the band. They were pipers Sharon Armsworthy, Karen MacDonald and Karen Trenholm, and drummer Nancy Scott MacDonald.

The Ceildih Girls' Pipe Band circa 1953 in Antigonish

In June, the band travelled to New York where they took part in the Lions International Parade. Money needed to send the band to New York was raised by Pictou County Lion’s Clubs based in New Glasgow, Trenton and Pictou. Rain conspired to make them the stars of the international event. While other bands’ instruments suffered because of the excess moisture, the pipes never sounded better. The girls were treated to enthusiastic applause all along the five-mile parade route. The judges placed them sixth out of fifty-seven bands and Drum Major Patsy MacKay tied for second place. There was only one other pipe band in the competition. While in New York, the band also performed at the Nova Scotia booth, one of many set up by Lions Clubs from across the United States and Canada in Madison Square Gardens.

Soon after their return, the band received a letter from one of the adjudicators, E.J. Marty, Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Brass Instruments of the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville. He praised the band, not only for their music, but also for their overall presentation. “In my own personal estimation,” he said, “your group was the outstanding organization to appear in New York at the convention of Lions International. Those of us who are teaching and in music education must be cognizant of all the aspects of organizational work, and we are prone to pass off poor musicianship in many instances in the light of other more intrinsic values to be derived from the organization. Conversely, we are apt to use high musical goals as an excuse for unusual or temperamental behavior in our groups.

“I believe that while I was completely carried away with the actual performance of the group musically, the outstanding thing about your girls’ band is the degree of dignity, maturity and tradition which marked each girl as a person as well as the group as a whole. I am sincere in my desire to know more about your organization and to do anything I can to aid and assist in every way. I would like very much to keep in contact with the group and with you out of my genuine interest in the organization and out of my sincere appreciation of good teaching.”

This was certainly a fine tribute to the girls and to their instructors, Fraser Holmes and John Nicholson, as well as glowing praise for the chaperones and other organizers who accompanied the band on their trip.

On the way home from New York, the band stopped overnight in Bangor, Maine and performed before an audience of over 1000. Later, the girls took part in a street dance organized by the Recreation Department and were pictured the next day in the local media in their band uniforms dancing with some of the handsome young American boys they met at the dance. When the band had reached Calais, Maine, they found that their path was blocked by a parade that was forming up to celebrate the Fourth of July. One of the parade organizers saw the sign on the side of their bus and invited the girls to join the parade. Within a very few minutes, the girls were dressed, tuned up, and leading the parade through Calais. It was a great lark, one that they all enjoyed.

In 1955, the band travelled again to Calais, Maine for the annual 4th of July celebrations. They also took part in Charlottetown, PEI’s Centennial Celebrations, a Shindig at Springhill, NS, the Bicentennial of the Expulsion of the Acadians, which was marked in Moncton, NB, and the Opening of the Canso Causeway. At the Moncton celebration, the band played for twenty minutes in a Folklore Hour each of four nights. The program also included a Folklore Troupe from Quebec, and a Louisiana band consisting of 92 musicians, as well as representation from the native Indian community and from the English and the Irish settlers. On one of the afternoons, they were bused to a T.B. Clinic where they performed for the patients. They took part in the Opening Ceremonies in front of L’Assumption Cathedral, a program which was televised and viewed by several thousand people. On the Friday, they performed at Moncton City Hospital, and returned home in time to travel on to the Opening of the Causeway on August 13th.

Earlier in the year, the band had recorded its first album. The musicians played out-of-doors, and the tape was sent to the Metro Disc Company in Montreal. More than 2000 copies of the album were ordered to be sold at the Official Opening of the Canso Causeway on August 13th. The band was promised a 5% commission on all sales. George Taylor, the Maritime Representative for the recording company, stated that the first sales would take place in Nova Scotia, but would then spread out across the country. When the recordings arrived in New Glasgow, before the Canso Causeway Opening, they went on sale at S. G. McCulloch’s, with notices appearing in the papers. The band had also performed at the Antigonish Highland Games, placing first in the competition for junior bands.

On August 13th, the Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band took part in the historic and much publicized Official Opening of the Canso Causeway. The Parade of 100 Pipers was led by a large all-male contingent, followed by the province’s girls’ pipe bands, in the order of their founding. Thus, the Ceilidh Girls’, being the very first to be founded in the province, was given the place of honour at the head of this part of the procession. They marched across the causeway before an audience estimated to consist of 40,000 people.

The Ceilidh band at that time numbered 15 pipers and 7 drummers. In addition, there were about 20 more students studying pipes and drums in anticipation of taking their places in the band. With Pipe Major Holmes overseeing the instruction, the older girls in the band guided these beginners in their studies.

In March of 1956, the band performed in Halifax for the Road Builders Association, marking their fifth performance for this group. In June they travelled to St. Andrews-by-the-sea, NB to play for the Canadian Association of Equitable Distributors.

The Ceildih Girls' Pipe Band circa 1956 in Halifax

While the competitive records are unfortunately not complete, there is evidence to show that the band competed frequently at the Antigonish Highland Games, placing first in 1952, 1955, and 1956, second in 1953, 1957, 1958 (the Pipe Major was listed as being Miss Marion Morash), 1959, 1961 and 1965, and third in 1962 and 1963. It was not all glory, however, for in 1969, the band placed sixth in what was the largest entry of Junior bands at the games to that time, seven bands participating in the Junior Band competition.

As happens to all junior pipe bands, the girls grew up and the membership began to reflect new faces. By 1956, Pipe Major Fraser Holmes reported that only three of the original members were still performing with the band.

He also reported that the girls in the band each wore a tartan kilt of their own choosing which reflected the large number of Scottish families represented in the town of New Glasgow. He listed the current members and their tartans as follows: Drum Major Pat MacKay (Hunting MacLean), Glenda Arthurs (Hunting Stewart), Sharon Wamback (Dress Anderson), Miriam Morash (Princess Margaret Rose), Diane Hiscott, Sharon Armsworthy, and Karen Little (Royal Stewart), Karen MacDonald (Fraser), Karen Trenholm (Hay), Judy Hicks (MacGregor), Janet MacDonald (MacDonald of Sleat), Nancy MacDonald (Dress MacDonald), Mary Ann MacLean (MacLean), Clare MacDonald (Buchanan), Linda Mackie (Holme), Dorothy Rogers (Dress Anderson), Priscilla MacAlpine (Johnstone), Jean Grant (Hunting MacKinnon), and Emily Feit (Red Lindsay).

The band travelled to Charlottetown, PEI in 1957, placing second in the junior pipe band competition there.

A photo of the band taken c1958 included the following members: Barbara Sproull, Judy Wynn, Jean Ryan, Joyce MacDonald, Joan Fraser, Marsha MacKay, Nancy MacDonald, Emily Feit, Sharon Armsworthy, Judy Hicks, Karen MacDonald, Bonnie Allan, Donna MacKay, Lorraine Cooke, Eva Facey, Dorothy Rogers, Ena MacLeod, Elsel Gammon, Shirley Little, Dorothy MacKay, Janet MacDonald, and Karen Trenholm.

In 1959, the band competed at the Gaelic Mod, placing 2nd. They also played at the St. F.X. Homecoming under the leadership of P/M Wallace Roy.

In 1961, the band attended the Clan Sutherland Games in Brookline, Massachusetts. The competing bands were separated into two groups, A and B, and the Ceilidh Girls’ competed in the B event, winning the New England Championship. They also competed in an open slow march event, placing fifth overall. When they arrived home in New Glasgow about 10:30 PM the following Thursday, they were met on the highway by a cavalcade of more than 100 welcomers and escorted into town by the RCMP and the New Glasgow and Trenton fire trucks with their sirens sounding. It was a very exciting evening for the tired but happy young musicians.

In 1964, the 27-member band travelled to Ottawa at the request of the Sparks Street Merchants Association. The girls toured the city and the parliament buildings, and were hosted by Pictou County Member of Parliament, Mr. Russell MacEwen. With a side trip to Niagara Falls, the band also performed at the competitions in Maxville and Dutton.

In 1965, the Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band performed in Halifax at the Insurance Agents’ Convention at the Nova Scotian Hotel. Caroline MacKay and Janet Priest piped the delegates out of the hotel and then the full band led them to the Immigration Centre where the delegates enjoyed a lobster dinner while the band performed for their entertainment. Later, the band performed at Sackville Downs where four thousand had gathered for the Shriners’ Convention.

In 1967, the band travelled to Montreal to perform at Expo ‘67.

In 1968, the band played for the passing out parade and inspection that ended a five-week training program for student militiamen that was held on the grounds of the New Glasgow High School. Colonel L. A. Fraser, Commanding Officer of the Nova Scotia Highlanders, was the inspecting officer, and he took a few moments to compliment the Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band on their efforts that helped make the day a tremendous success.

In 1969, the band took part in the Natal Day Parade that marked the city of Halifax’s 220th anniversary. Later, they travelled to Stillwater where they gave four short concerts at the Sportsmen’s Meet.

Also in 1969, the Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band celebrated its 20th anniversary from August 1-3rd with a reunion of present and past members at the I.O.O.F. Hall in New Glasgow. Eleven of the original thirteen-member group attended. Eveline Dunbar, now Mrs. Robert MacLeod, of Baddeck, also attended the gathering and, when asked what prompted her to found the band, she replied that it seemed to have been a natural instinct. “I have always been aware of my Scottish heritage,” she explained. “My parents live on the farm here (Lorne), which was one of the original land grants. They were and still are interested in their forefathers and their accomplishments, and some of it rubbed off on me. I think our heritage is something we should be proud of and do everything in our power to preserve.” The present band performed and then it was the turn of the ‘old girls’ who put on quite a show, piping, drumming and dancing, just as they had done so many years before.

In 1972, the Nova Scotia Pipers and Pipe Band Association (NSPPBA) adopted the Graded System and the band was placed in Grade 3. Later, as Nova Scotian bands began to compete more often in Ontario and beyond, a Grade 4 category was added, and all Nova Scotian bands were dropped a grade to bring them more in line with national and international standards. The Ceilidh Pipe Band was placed in Grade 4 under this restructuring. In 1973, however, it was back in Grade 3 and placed second at the Antigonish Highland Games.

In the fall of 1973, Jack MacIsaac took over as piping instructor of the band. At his insistence, boys were accepted into its ranks for the first time in 1974. This required a change in name, and the Ceilidh Girls’ Pipe Band became the Ceilidh Pipe Band. (See Ceilidh Pipe Band for the continuation of this story.)

In July, 1989, twenty-nine of the ‘old girls’ gathered to celebrate the band’s fortieth anniversary and a decades later, at the 50th Anniversary Reunion celebrations, former piping instructor Jack MacIsaac played a lament in tribute to the Late Fraser Holmes. Eveline (Dunbar) MacLeod was on hand to take part in remembering the past.