RSPBANI supports NI Children’s Hospice

The RSPBA’s Northern Ireland branch is in its third year of supporting the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice, so far raising more than £5,000 for the charity, and this year their efforts are in full swing with a set of brand spanking new set of Peter Henderson bagpipes from R.G. Hardie & Co. of Glasgow at stake for one lucky winner.

The branch is coordinating donations of £1 each for a chance to win the instrument, which carries a retail price of £985.

The project is being spearheaded by Mervyn Herron, who remains section secretary for County Down despite resigning from his post as Contest Committee Chairman for the Northern Ireland Branch earlier this year, after he was ousted from the organization’s board of directors late in 2015. Herron will stay on as County Down section secretary until June.

“Thanks to R.G. Hardie for the beautiful bagpipes,” Herron said. “Over the last two years we decided to do a more structured support for a charity. We picked the Children’s Hospice for our charity, and after that I contacted Alastair Dunn of R.G. Hardie & Co. and I asked him if was it possible the company could donate a set if bagpipes for a prize draw and he readily agreed to support us.”

Anyone who wishes to buy tickets for the raffle is encouraged to use the contact information on the poster included here (click to enlarge).

Herron said that he has been denied access to publishing material on the RSPBANI website since he posted his resignation letter to it in April, the organization seeing it, according to Herron, as a “data protection breach.”

The draw for the pipes will be made on June 18th at the Craigavon & District Pipe Band Championships.