Published 13 April 2011
Of the many tributes paid to Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering space flight 50 years ago on 12 April, Ireland’s included one of the most original.
A musical tribute to Major Yuri Gagarin was recorded on Yuri’s Night 2011 in Temple Bar, Dublin. “Major Gagarin” is performed in the video on the uilleann pipes by up-and-coming piper and pipe-maker Donnacha Dwyer.
It does have a precedent, however. In 1962, the Roscommon piper Andy Conroy composed a tribute to John Glenn entitled “Colonel Glenn” and now “Major Gagarin” is the pipers’ tribute to Yuri Gagarin, 50 years on.
Marking 50 years of space flight at Yuri's Night in Dublin on 12 April 2011
(Video recorded by Breffni Banks on behalf of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust.)
