Culminating in an award-winning trip to Kilkenny, Ireland in 1998, the NYPD Pipes & Drums compettion band had been winning contests throughout the U.S. in the 1990's. The band finished up in 1999 in grade three of the EUSPBA (Eastern United States Pipe band Association).   At about this time in history, many of the competitors had growing young families & were rising through the ranks of the NYPD to critical positions.  This caused a lack of free time for rehearsal. Availablilty for competition started to wane, but interest in getting back onto the field remained strong.  The attacks of September 11, 2001 of course further stymied our ability to field a band in the competitive arena, as members found themselves in terror-fighting positions throughout the NYPD.

In 2008, under the tireless leadership of our Pipe Major and Sergeants, and after an eight year hiatus, the band finally was able to get out there and compete once again.  Competition was as stiff as some of our aging fingers, but we managed to hold our own and take some constructive criticism from the judges.  Bagpiping in the United States had noticely improved overall, and we found we had some hurdles to overcome in tune selection and skill.  We had to improve our playing to a level higher than the previous decade, but the struggle has been a great and motivating challenge.

Through out the season of 2009, the NYPD Pipes and Drums had not placed in any contests, but one could tell that we were a rising menace to our rivals.  The band was hovering around 4th place. We sample-tasted victory with a 2nd place win at the Meadow Highland games in Doswell, VA on October 24th, 2009.  This is a psychological victory for us and the band is now fine tuning in the off season.  The NYPD Pipes and Drums competition band plans on getting out early and often in the upcoming season. WATCHOUT.

Many thanks must go out to our supporters at all of our contests.  It is extremely exciting to our players to hear your roaring applause after we play our set.  See you all in the spring!