IRISH PIPES AND PIPERS

New Zealand Tablet, 11 April 1912, Page 9

IRISH PIPES AND PIPERS

noted performers of the last century On the history of Irish music and musicians there > is no greater authority than Dr. W. H. Grattan Flood. His Story of the Harp, issued some time since, had a remarkable success, and no less full should be the patronage extended by the public to his newest publication, The Story of the Bagpipe. It is crammed with information, and from its* brilliant pages we ( Belfast Weekly) take the - following: Perhaps at no period of the history of the bag ; pipes in Ireland was the vogue of the Uilleann -pipes so great as during the first half of the nineteenth century. Between the years 1800 and 1807 three bagpipe 'tutors were published— O’FarreH’s; Fitzraaurice’s, and Geoghegan’s, At christenings, weddings, dancing at the cross-roads, or other social functions, the bagpipe was indispensable. The war-pipes had disappeared, the harp was fast going into abeyance, apd so the improved domestic pipes catered for the needs of the middle classes. Unlike the Scotch..pipes, the Uilleann pipes had a compass equal to the requirements of all popular airs and dance music, and were in high favor from 1800 to 1860 the period of decay setting in after the famine of 1847-49. From various sources we learn that the ' Three Most Famous Irish Pipers at the birth of the nineteenth century were Courtney, Crampton, and Crump. The former has been already alluded to as having played in the pantomime of ‘ Oscar and Malvina,’ and as having composed much popular dance music. Cramp ton was also a brilliant performer, but did not have the gift of composition. He died early in 1811. John Crump was in equally good repute as a performer. His pipes were acquired by Hardiman. .Jeremiah Murphy was a noted performer of the same - period. He describes' himself in a professional card (now before us) as ‘ late of Loughrea,’ and in September 1811, he announces evening performances at D’Arcy’s Tavern, Cook street, Dublin, r "Early in 11813 he transferred his services to the Griffin Tavern Cin Dame Court, a sort of ‘ free-and-easy establishment. After 1815 he gave up entertaining the public in taverns, and I cannot trace him further. More famous than any of these was William Talbot, the blind piper. Born near &oscrea, County Tipperary, in 1780, he lost his sight from small-pox in 1785,. and was trained as a professional, piper. He had quite an - adventurous life, and was . a most ingenious mechanic and inventor. Not alone did he construct a beautiful organ, but he made several sets of bagpipes, and introduced many improvements. , Between the years 1803 and 1813 his fame was not confined to Ireland, and in the latter year he opened a tavern; in Little Mary street, Dublin. At a performance of ‘Oscar and Malvina

at Qrow Street: Theatre on March 5, 1816, he played on the Uilleann pipes, and-upheld his reputation as; a master, of his instrument. ; - Another wonderful_piper in ; the - early years of the last century was Edmund Keating Hyland, a mative of Cahir, County Tipperary. Like Talbot, he lost his sight when still a'boy r and was apprenticed to a local piper. In 1812 he formed the Acquaintance of Sir John; Stevenson, from whom - he received some « lessons in musical theory, and in 1821 he played for King George IV., who •ordered him a new set of pipes costing fifty; guineas. He availed of all the improvements effected by Talbot and his playing of ‘ The Fox Chase £ was a glorious piece of ‘tipping.’ Hyland died at Dublin in 1845, aged sixty-five. ~ ■- ..- - ;;• / ■ ’ ■ ' 7 Surely,.. The Fox - Chase is a delightfully descriptive piece, with its imitation - of the hounds -in - full cry, the death of the fox, etc.; and it is said that Hyland’s performance of it was unrivalled. Some writers have imagined that he actually composed this piece, but he merely added some variations. The theme of it is ‘An maidrin ruadh,’ or ‘The Little Bed Fox,’ an ancient Irish melody. -" ■ . ( . slightly later date among the Irish bagpipe virtuosi is Kearns Fitzpatrick, who was specially selected to play at a command performance in the Dublin Theatre Royal, on August-22, 1821, when King George IV. was present. Fitzpatrick performed St. Patrick s Day and ‘God Save the King,’ amidst applause,- although, as stated in a contemporary notice, the sound of the pipes appeared somewhat thin in the large building. During The Second Quarter of the Last Century, Thomas O Hannigan was deservedly ■in request as a piper. He was a native of- Cahir, County Tipperary, - and became blind at the age of eleven, in the year 1817. After an apprenticeship of four years to various Munster pipers he acquired no inconsiderable local fame. In 1837 he performed for five nights at the Adelphi Theatre, Dublin, and in 1844 his playing was much admired ,at the -Abbey Street Theatre. He went to London in 1846, and remained there six years, during which he played before Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, and also at an Oxford University commemoration. In 1862 he returned to Ireland; and died early ni1863 at Bray from an attack of apoplexy. O’Connell’s famous piper, Paddy O’Sullivan, better known at Paddy Goshure, must not be omitted, more especially as he was an excellent performer, ’ but yet never could be induced to leave the vicinity of Derrynane. The name Cosheir (pronounced ‘ Goshure ’) was given to him as one of a branch of the "O’Sullivans ‘ for a peculiarity in using a sword in battle,’ as Lady Chatterton , writes, Paddy flourished “from 1825 to 1840. But M The Most Celebrated Piper of This Period was James Gandsey—* Lord Headley’s blind piper ’ —a very prince among performers on the Uilleann pipes." Born in 1767, he lived all his days in the ‘ Kingdom of Kerry, and was unrivalled for tone and execution. Visitors to Killarney from 1820 to 1850 made it a point to hear Gandsey, one of whose favorite tunes was ‘The day we beat the Germans at Cremona ’ (an old Irish pipe melody composed in honor of the victory at Cremona on February 1, 1702), and his playing is eulogised by Crofton Croker, Lady Chatterton, Sir Samuel Ferguson, and other writers. Like Hyland, he revelled in descriptive pieces like The Fox Chase.’ Gandsey lived to a green old age, and died at Killarney in February 1857, aged ninety. There is a fine portrait of him in the Joly collection. now in the National Library, Dublin. ; ; ' . , . Between the years 1825-50 Paddy Coneely had a great reputation in Connaught, almost equal to that of Gandsey in Munster. Several of his compositions have survived, but it is as a performer that he is best remembered. He was presented with a. splendid set of pipes formerly belonging to Crump, through the generosity of James Hardiman, author of , ‘ Irish Minstrelsy ’ who acquired them after Crump’s death. His ‘O’Connell s welcome to Clare,’ in 1828, is a fine specimen’ of Irish melody. A very appreciative notice of Coneely, i

from the pen . of Dr. Petrie, appeared in' the Irish Penny Journal for October 3, 1840, with a striking portrait. He lived some years later, but I have not been able to discover the exact date. For centuries The Old Irish Chieftains had a hereditary piper-as well as harper, and one of the last of the household pipers was Daniel O’Leary, piper to the O’Donoghue of the Glens, in the ’forties and ’fifties of the last century. He was regarded as little inferior to Gandsey. Another famous Kerry piper was Michael Whelan. Many professional performers came from different parts of , Ireland to hear him play, but he ruined his career by unsteadiness, and died in poverty. In the ’fifties and ’sixties flourished quite a number of capital performers on the Uilleann pipes. It is rather invidious to single out any one in particular, but we are assured by competent judges that Sheedy, Ferguson, Taylor, Garret Quinn, Cunningham, Hicks, David Quinn, Dowcjall, and Hogan worthily maintained the best traditions of pipeclaying. In fact, old people allege that at this particular epoch the bagpipe had lost none of its popularity, and there were at least a dozen good pipe-makers in various parts of Ireland. , Nor had the pipes lost any of their' old glamor in the eyes of amateurs. We find numerous ‘ gentlemen ’ pipers all-through the last, century. ■ Peers, like Lord Rossmore and Lord Edward Fitzgerald; college don, like the late Rev. Professor Goodman of Trinity College ; men of large fortune, like Mr. Butler, Mr. Brownrigg, Mr. Colclough, and Mr. MacDonald; even Catholic Bishops, like Dr. Tuohy, of Limerick, and many priests and parsons —all were devoted to the instrument. My earliest recollection is hearing'Professor Goodman play a selection of Irish airs oh. the Uilleann pipes, and I never forgot' the charm of ‘ his playing. : N The Irish'Warpipesf ■ To the Tyrone Fusiliers, a link battalion of the 27th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, is due the revival of the Irish war-pipes in 1859, and some years later Colonel Cox, commanding the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers, supplied eight sets of war-pipes ; (with two drums) to eight Irish pipers in his regiment. These eight pipers

were attached to companies, and their pipes were modelled on the lines of the niob mor of the sixteenth century. ; - After - the famine period (1847-49) gaiety seemed to have disappeared from the ‘masses,’ and what between the depression of the times and the exodus to America, the decline of the Uilleann pipes set in. ' This decline continued until the close of the last century, and in 1894 scarce a dozen good pipers could be found in Ireland. Of these Robert Thompson, Martin Reilly, Turlough Mac Sweeney, Denis Delaney, Michael O’Sullivan, John Flanagan, and John Cash were the most famous. No doubt the starting of the Gaelic League (July 31, 1893) focussed attention on the Irish harp and the Irish pipes,'but the musical aspect had to be subsidiary to the language resuscitation, and so the vogue of the pipes was merely given a fillip. Indeed, some enthusiasts like myself thought that a grand and permanent revival of the bagpipes would take place, but truth compels me to add that.expectations, formed in the years 1893-1900 have not been realised. '