Connery to bond with pipers in US record bid

EDINBURGH-BORN screen legend Sean Connery will lead 10,000 bagpipers through the centre of New York in a record-breaking parade next month, organisers said today.

The former James Bond star will be joined by the city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg at the event to mark Tartan Day, which aims to strengthen ties between Scotland and the United States.

Pipers from 30 countries around the globe will take part, including bands from Trinidad, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand.

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor family’s band are one of 70 British bands taking part in the parade.

The youngest player is five-year-old Liam McGill, a drummer with St Ann’s of Hampton Pipes and Drums in New Jersey.

The pipers will parade down Sixth Avenue, through the heart of Manhattan, to Central Park in an attempt to break the previous record of 8500 pipers set in Edinburgh two years ago.

Scotland’s First Minister Jack McConnell will also be at the Tartan Day celebrations, which mark the Declaration of Arbroath on April 6, 1320, when a group of Scottish nobles swore independence from England.

Parts of the document are said to have been used by the Founding Fathers when the American colonies followed suit in 1776.

Sir David Steel, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, will present a new tartan to Mr Bloomberg at a Scottish Pipes and Drums Ball on April 5, the eve of Tartan Day.