George and Sue Drake look through the Scottish dinner fixins as they await the arrival of guests.
On Thursday, August 6th, Grinnell’s own Turlach Ur pipe band played in The Mayflower Community, while residents enjoyed a traditional Scottish dinner delivered to their homes and gathering places.
The menu for the dinner included Steak pie (Scottish version of Shepard’s pie), Stovies (bits from the stove, potatoes, carrots, and corned beef), Neeps & Tatties (potatoes and rutabaga), Scotch Eggs (hard-boiled egg wrapped in port sausage and breadcrumbs, and fried to a golden brown), Feather Biscuit, and Beer Root Salad. For desert, Mayflower served a “Tipsy Laird Trifle” (our version of a Scottish butter tablet, a traditional Scottish fudge). Thursday evening, 121 meals were delivered across the Mayflower campus.
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of bagpipers and drummers. The most common form of pipe band consists of a section of pipers playing the Great Highland bagpipe, a section of snare drummers (often referred to as ‘side drummers’), several tenor drummers, and usually one, though occasionally two, bass drummers. Pipe bands have their roots in Ireland, but Scotland is credited with their modern development.
Turlach Ur has posted on their website, “With a roster of more than 30 pipers and drummers, [we are] the largest pipe band in Iowa. More than half of the band members are junior players, ranging in age from 10 to 17. Numerous students, both young and less young, are in training to step into the ranks soon.”
Founded in 2007, Turlach Ur did not enter the competition arena in earnest until 2015, but immediately established itself as the top competitive band in Iowa. The band won the Grade 5 Midwest Championships in Chicago that year, as well as the aggregate season championship, MWPBA (Mid-West Pipe Band Association) Champion Supreme.
For one year in 2016, Turlach Ur joined forces with the Cameron Highlanders of San Diego, competing very successfully in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Chicago, as well as the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, where the Grade 3A band finished fifth.
Upgraded to Grade 4 for the 2017 competition season, Turlach Ur won in Milwaukee as well as at the Grade 4 Midwest Championships at Chicago.
In 2018, the Turlach Ur Grade 4 band was undefeated in competition for the second consecutive year, including a repeat win at the Midwest Championships, and was named MWPBA Champion Supreme in Grade 4, earning an upgrade to Grade 3 for 2019.
2018 also saw the debut of the Turlach Ur Grade 5 band at the Wisconsin Highland Games at Waukesha. Of the band’s 11 members, nine were first-timers and eight of those were between the ages of 10 and 13.
Turlach Ur performs concerts regularly both in Grinnell and beyond, and is recognized widely for its unusually fun and innovative shows. The band’s junior players sometimes perform on their own as the “Turlach Urchins.” Since 2010, Turlach Ur has been affiliated with the Grinnell Area Arts Council.
— Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director
