Donnacha Dwyer began playing the pipes in Na Píobairí Uilleann in the late 1980s where he was thought by Martin Nolan and John Murphy. By the mid ’90s he began to be influenced by recordings of Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Leo Rowsome and Liam O’Flynn.
It was also in the mid ’90s where he began performing on the pipes and since then has done so extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. In his early twenties he took a keen interest in reed and pipe making and began to study pipe-making, part-time initially with pipe maker Des Seery. Later he received an Arts Council grant to study pipe-making full time and has been a full time pipe-maker since 2008.
He has been a teacher in Henrietta Street for a number of years on Tuesday nights and has also thought a number of courses through NPU’s PipeCraft initiative.
In 2006 he released an album with fiddle player Malachy Bourke entitled “Bourke and Dwyer”.
He plays a D and a C set, both made by himself.