Meagher (pronounced MAR), an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, is a fourth-generation bagpipe player from an Irish-American family that is accustomed to seeing him play at family functions with his father, brother, and cousins. Meagher has cut back on the number of March gigs he’s playing this year, but, even so, he has a half-dozen commitments and is farming out the ones he can’t make. He has been playing since he was a child and is regarded as one of the best pipers in the region. The “pipe major” or leader of his band, NYU’s Pipes and Drums, Brian Meagher Jr., knows the routine all too well. Patrick’s Day parades and events get going. Heller, who was standing in a 4-foot by 4-foot supply closet as he spoke so that his voice could be heard, is one of hundreds of bagpipe players throughout the metropolitan area whose market value suddenly skyrockets in the month of March, when St. Heller said as he held up the clumsy looking instrument to explain each part. In a few minutes, the group, an eclectic mix of about 15 people, would be standing in a semicircle practicing a fast-paced song, “The Jolly Beggarman.” His fellow band members had already started warming up their bagpipes and were traversing the 12th floor of an NYU building in downtown Manhattan, skirling an out-of-sync mix of notes. It was just after 8 o’clock Wednesday evening when Howard Heller tore open a small plastic package of foam earplugs and shoved a spongy wad into each ear.
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