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O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 79

O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 79
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periodical Publisher
Regan Printing House, Chicago, 1913
periodical Editor
[none]
periodical Title
O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians
volume Number
1
issue Content
Famous Bagpipe Makers iCHAPTER XVIFAMOUS BAGPIPE MAKERSTHE inordinate p ssion which the Irish have in all ages displayed for musicmust have eventually produced an eager pursuit of such means as would tend toits gratification. :Musical instrument makers were to be found in many of thesmallest towns of Ireland, ai2d generally among men of the lowest professions,Lady Morgan tells us in her Patriotic Sketches, published lfl 1807.In this work she mentions the ease of a poor hedge carpenter in the town ofStrabane, County Tyrone, who obtained some degree of excellence in makingviolins and flutes, built a sinai! organ, and was frequently called in by the mostrespectable families in the neighborhood to tune or mend pianofortes, harpsichords,and other instruments.Another instance was that of a Young Connachtman then residing in Dublin,who, though but a common carpenter, made a small piano on which he performed,self-taught in theory of music as in the construction of a musical instrument.A remarkably fine-toned organ with six stops, she continues, has beenlately placed in the Roman Catholic chapel at Mullingar, built by a poor wheel-wright, a native of the town. He had commenced as a bagpipe maker a fewyears before, without any previous instruction, and shortly after completed agood pianoforte.The genius to whom Lady Morgan, then Miss Sydney Owenson, refers, wasTIMOTHY KENNAOriginally a maker of household spinningwheels, and a mechanic of con-spicuous excellence, he turned his attention to the making of Union pipes, andbecame the most famous in that line in Ireland, not alone in his day, but of alltune, until Michael Egan, of Liverpool, won recognition and renown in the earlyforties of the ninteenth century.Kenna flourished between 1768 and 1794, but the (late on which he trans-ferred his business to Dublin cannot be stated.Judging by the splendid instrument pictured in Grattan Floods Story of theBagpipe which Kenna made in 1770 for John MacDonnell, the development ofthe Union pipes was far advanced. This instrument, now the property of LordMacDonnell, late Under-Secretary for Ireland, may be seen at the Dublin Museum,where another set of Kennas make is also on exhibition. And, by the way, itmay interest the reader to know that John S. Wavland, founder and secretary ofthe Cork Pipers Club, rejoices in the possession of a set of Union pipes madeby Kenna in 1783, which had passed through the hands of five previous owners.There having been two makers of bagpipes in Dublin with this surname(probably father and son), the subject of this sketch is generally referred to asthe elder Kenna.THOMAS KENNAThe younger Kenna flourished in the first quarter of the nineteenth century,and by all accounts he ably sustained the family reputation. He kept shop at156No. i Essex Quay, Dublin. Mysterious and secretive, the younger Kennawas a close corporation, and would not allow anyone, idler or stroller, abouthis place to see him take off a single shaving. A young farmer named Boylan,possessing remarkable mechanical skill, came one day into Kennas shop with achanter and asked him to fit a reed to it, hoping to gain a little knowledge byseeing him work. Kenna, who always maintained a respectable appearancehe wore top boots, if you pleaseput on his hat and coat, left the shop at once,locked the door, and, turning to Boylan, said: Come at this hour tomorrow, sir,and your chanter will be ready. And so it was, hut Bovlan was no wiser.MAURiCE COYNEThis well-known maker of Union pipes was one of four brothers, respectableyoung farmers, who lived in the parish of Carhurv. County Kildare, a few milesfrom the town of Edenderry. Maurice took to playing the pipes as a youth,migrated to Dublin, and acquired the tools and business of the younger Kennaon the latters death. Coynes shop was at No. 41 James Street, Dublin.Instruments of Coynes make, of which many are yet in existence, displayneat workmanship and, though lacking in volume, are pure and sweet in tone.THE MOLONEY BROTHERSThe discovery that the magnificent set of Union pipes of Peculiar designpicked up by Prof. Denis OLeary in Clare in 1906 was manufactured by theMoloney brothersThomas and Andrewat Kilrush, in that county, presumablysolves a puzzling problem.The trombone slide, which is a conspicuous feature of the instrument, wasalso a prominent characteristic of the splendid Irish pipes seen in the picturesof Captain Kelly and William Murphy in this volume. As neither of the notedpipemakersKenna, Coyne, Harrington, or Eganturned out instruments ofthat type, there is nothing inconsistent in attributing their manufacture t theMoloneys.It was while acting as Gaelic League organizer in iqo6 that Professor OLearybecame acquainte(l with a Mr. Nolan, of Knockerra, near Kilrush, a good amateurpiper and an enthusiast on the instrument, though then well advanced in years.In early life he knew intimately Thomas and Andrew Moloney of tile same town-land, who made on the order of Mr. Vandaleur, a local landlord, what is claimedto be the most elaborate set of bagpipes in existence. Thomas was a blacksmithand Andrew was a carpenter, but both were great performers on the Union pipes.According to Mr. Nolans story, they did not manufacture many sets of pipes, butthey were always most obliging towards the piping fraternity in repairing theirinstruments.It may be objected that mechanics of their class would he incapable of turningout such fine technical work, hut in view of the fact that Egan, the famous harp-maker of Dublin, was originally a blacksmith, and that tile eider Kenna was bytrade a wheelwright, there appear to he no just grounds to question the authen-ticity of the Molonev claims.\Vhen seen by the present writer at Mr. Rowsomes shop, i8 ArmstrongStreet, Harolds Cross, Dublin, in 1906. Professor OLears treasure was dis-jointed and apparently long out of use, but it seems Mr. Rowsonie experiencedno difficulty in putting it in order. It was a massive ebony iiistrunient, the chanter
issue Number
1
page Number
79
periodical Author
O'Neill, Capt. Francis
issue Publication Date
1913-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians

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