Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes were calling at the Addison Township Public Library on St. Patrick’s Day.

Joe Schnur, a longtime township resident, brought his bagpipes to the library and performed a few songs for a small, but enthusiastic crowd looking to get their Celtic on, minus the green beer and noisy drunks.

The 84-year-old filled the normally quiet air with timeless tunes such as “Scotland the Brave”; “Going Home”; “The Rowan Tree”; “Dark Island”; and “Amazing Grace.”

Listening to him play, one would never know that Schnur doesn’t have a single drop of Scottish or Irish blood flowing through his veins.

“You’re not going to believe it – I’m half Lebanese, a quarter German and a quarter French,” he said.

Schnur’s been playing the pipes for more than four decades.

He began taking lessons at the tender age of 39 when his 11-year-old son, Joe, basically forced him into it. Little Joe wanted to learn to play, but only if dad would do it with him.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’” Schnur said.

Despite his misgivings, he agreed and has been making music ever since.

“It took me 10 years before I could play the thing without getting ill,” Schnur said. “It’s difficult to play and I was not very good. I got sick of hearing myself. If it’s done right and tuned right, it sounds good. If it’s not done right or tuned right, it’s horrible.”

Eventually, something just clicked.

“One day, my wife said, ‘You know, you don’t sound too bad,’” Schnur said.

High praise, indeed.

Why did he stick with it?

“I had nothing else to do,” he said.

Being a piper can be quite physically demanding. Schnur got a new reed last year and the process of breaking it in led to him having not one, but two hernia operations last fall.

But Schnur’s not letting that stop him.

“A lot of my friends love to hear this thing played, so I just keep at it,” he said.