Neillidh Mulligan was born into a musical family in Phibsborough, Dublin and like ma Ay such families, the Mulligan roots lay outside Dublin. Their mother Catherine came from Beale, Co. Kerry and their father Tom ( 1915-1984) from Barnacoola, Co. Leitrim. Tom played the fiddle from childhood and took up the pipes after he came to Dublin, when he got a set of pipes made in 1938 by James Mulcrone from Co. Longford. This is the same set of pipes which Neillidh plays here and are pitched in C#. Through Tom did not play the pipes much in later years, he gave Neillidh his first lessons. This was followed by tWo years of more formal instruction from the great Leo Rowsome in the Municipal School of Music and the Piper's Club, Thomas Street However, the piper who most influenced him was Seamus Ennis, a great friend of Tom Mulligans and a frequent visitor to the Mulligans house in Phibsborough. While Ennis never formally taught any pupils, he would comment in a majesterial fashion on points of style and technique.Another musical friend of Tom's was the piper Tommy Reck whose remarkable style also impinged on Neillidh's.The influence of both pipers is clear in the selection of dance tunes on this album. Another strand in Neillidh's piping is his interest in Irish, and especiially sean nos singing, and this comes across in the sensitivity and phrasing of his air-playing. This is Neillidh's second solo CD. His first Barr na Cuille (SD 1022) took it's name from a reel he composed for his father.