While studying engineering he heard the playing of piper R. L. O'Mealy from Belfast at an athletics meeting (in which he was a member of the Q.U.B.
Studying with John Potts (grandfather of Seán Potts), one of Ireland's greatest pipers at the time, he came into contact with other famous pipers such as Leo Rowsome and Johnny Doran.
From 1950 until the formation of the Pipers Club he worked to promote the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCE) in county Clare and Munster.
After many years of waiting for CCE to devote a greater effort to reviving the uilleann pipes he, and a small group of like minded pipers decided that it was "now or never" and so proceeded, much to the annoyance of CCE, to formally set up the Pipers Club in Dublin, an organisation that would foster and promote the uilleann pipes to ensure it would survive.
[2] In 1998 the Sean Reid society was founded to promote uilleann pipe scholarship.