Tom Creegan

Tom Creegan grew up in Dublin learning in one of the best environments possible, the Pipers' Club in Thomas Street.  He played extensively in Europe and Canada before moving to Seattle where he fell in with a bad crowd, joining the Irish Pipers’ Club, then under the helm of Denis Brooks. Tom learned a lot from Denis of the depth and breadth of the tradition, while listening repeatedly to piping 78’s spun at LP speed

Tom was a founding member of and played for years with the scourge of the left coast, The Suffering Gaels. In that time, he was also lucky enough to play with some greats of the music like Kevin Burke, Micheál O'Domhnaill and Johnny Cunningham. He is now in a band called Crumac alongside fiddler Dale Russ.

He has many years of teaching experience, first at the Pipers’ Club in Dublin, and later in Seattle with Cumann na bPíobairí (Irish Pipers’ Club), as well as at many music festivals and schools. He continues to live in Seattle along with Lisa, Dermot and Niall, and currently serves as president of the Irish Pipers’ Club. He is the editor of The Pipers’ Review, the club’s newsletter which is distributed to pipers around the world.

The Pipes

Tom’s pipes are a set in D made by Leo Rowsome. They were made in the mid 50’s for Ivan Donaldson, a fisheries biologist in Stevenson, Washington, and were lying fallow for many years when pipe and reed guru Ted Anderson located and rescued them, bringing them to California. Very fortunately for Tom, Ted let him have the set, and they subsequently returned to the suitable climes of the Pacific Northwest.