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Ceol na hÉireann / Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 25

Ceol na hÉireann / Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 25
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periodical Publisher
Na Píobairí Uilleann
periodical Editor
Chairman, NPU
periodical Title
Ceol na hÉireann / Irish Music
volume Number
1
issue Content
40Ceol na hEireann Irish Music41Waterford, hed go up and play for Liam. Hed spend an hour in the house, youknow. And he always said to Liam, oh!, Im not going to stay any longer,theres no money. Ill go up to Dublin and Ill make more in ten minutes thanIll make here in the whole day. You know, I always used to quiz Liam aboutJohnny Doran because I didnt hear anything from Liam about him. What kindof a piper was Johnny Doran?, I asked. Well he didnt seem to think an awfullot of him. He said he was an open piper, thats all he said to me. He didnttake enough interest in Johnny Doran, I think he didnt hear enough of himactually. See, there were no recordings, and I dont think he heard John Doranmuch at all. See, Johnny Doran couldnt be dismissed like that, an open piper,thatd be grossly unfair to him, to the mans genius, you know.Walsh liked Samus Ennis in certain things, but not in everything. He usedto say to me, you should be listening to Willie Clancy, hes very nice. Walshknew Willie Clancy and he taught Clancy a whole lot of things. He used to meetWillie clancy in different parts of the country. And Willie said to me, he is someman now, that man has some great settings of tunes, he said, they are lovely.And he taught Willie a bundle of stuff, you know. Willie got a lot from him thatwas never mentioned, cause nobody knew it. It wasnt known. And Williewould have told it to people if it would have come up in the conversation, butWalsh wouldnt come up in the conversation.Liam Walsh had a wife, but no kids. And I think, when I was a young ladand went to him, he took to me greatly you know. And he came more and moredependent to me for so many things, you know. I felt that he treated me likeone of the family, like an adopted son. And he wouldnt go anywhere, Id haveto bring him. Everything was on in the house I was brought to it. And I wasnever allowed to go home, I wouldnt be home until midnight or more, I used tobe out late and that kind of thing. And I could do nothing about that, youknow. And all the years.And then he said, now you are a fully fledged piper, youre a real piper, youhave every mark of the piper about you. Theres only one thing you have to do,he said. Now I will not be able to play much longer, I want you to come one dayper week, he said, and play for me, and thats all Ill ask you for what Ive donefor you. And then, I did that for him, I used to go to him. I never missed goingup to him, twice, three times a week. And then he retired eventually from thejob he had. And when he retired, his wife was from Wexford, you see, she hada house in Wexford. They left Waterford, and went to live in Wexford and I lostcomplete contact with him. He was too far away. He was down near Rosslare,that far away. And my wife and I we used to go down towards Wexford.Now I was going to tell you what happened to those cylinders. Thispipemaker Henebry died. Now he had three daughters and a son. Twodaughters went to be nuns and the son was a Jesuit priest. The third daughtergot married to a farmer. And the daughter, when she got married, she left theold homestead and she took all the records with her. Now she had very littleinterest in them except that- she had to take them out of the house. Possiblyonly for that, she might have left them there. She got married to this farmer andshe put them up on an old loft, you know, in one of those thatched houseswhere thered be dampness and everything. And I went out one night to takerecordings of that, and we could not get the phonograph to work. It was theonly way that you could play them, with the phonograph. There was somethingwrong, there was too much noise and it was drowning the music. And I met thehusband a year after and he says to me, you know, you were only going out thedoor when we got it working. But he never called me back, he never told me,you know.And then they put the records back up there. And the records were so longthere, they got damp and the grooves started to move slightly, you see. Andthere was a man in Dublin called Seoirse Bodley, he is very well known, he gotvery friendly with the Jesuit priest in Dublin, there was some connection there,cause Seoirse was very fond of the tradition. And the priest was telling him,could something not be done about these recordings, that nobody had them butthem, there was bundles of them in the house, and this man Bodley nearlycollapsed and he came down and he said, something must be done with theseright away. And he came down to the sister and explained the whole thing, andshe, of course, was delighted. And she gave him all the cylinders. Now she toldme that he sent them back to America, that someone there was able to dosomething with them, and they got them back where they should be. They musthave taken some job. Bodley was a very nice man, he would never neglectanything like that. He would see that theyd be put on records or tapes. Nowwhether they saved them all or not, I have no idea. But Ill tell you, whenHenebry had them, they were absolutely perfect.Now Henebry also had a lot of blanks, cylinders, and he used to recordpeople on them. And he said to me, when I want to erase them, I just wipe themoff with a glasspaper. Henebry was a very retiring, reticent kind of a man, hewouldnt say much to you. Hed only record people very close to him. He had anarrow circle of friends, cause he was a very quiet man, he loved being at homeworking. And if he thought he knew some old lady who sang Irish songs, hedrecord her, or somebody might play a fiddle or something. If he liked them, hed
issue Number
1
page Number
25
periodical Author
[Various]
issue Publication Date
1993-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Ceol na hÉireann / Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1

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