Na Píobairí Uilleann

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8 3 26 20120622 26 these pipes and was not just a factor of them for other makers. The earliest advertisement found referring to him as a pipemaker shows that O’Farrell also taught the pipes and had a port- folio career of the kind familiar to professional musicians in all genres of music: IRISH PIPES. — Mr. O’FARRELL, Teacher and Maker of the above Instrument, most re- spectfully acquaints the Nobility and Gentry, that he instructs Gentlemen to Play on the Pipes genteelly in five weeks. Attends Ladies and Gentlemen’s Parties, Concerts, &c. – No. 65, Swallow-street, Hanover-square (The Morning Post, London, 21 Mar. 1806) Less than a fortnight later he has changed the name of his pipes, but is advertising the same services, and is selling pipes of the latest kind: To the LOVERS of NATIONAL MUSIC:— MR. O’FARRELL, Teacher and Maker of the Union Pipes, most respectfully acquaints the Nobility and Gentry that he instructs Gentle- men to play on the above instrument, in gen- teel style, in five weeks, and likewise attends Ladies and Gentlemen’s Parties, Concerts, &c. Gentlemen accommodated with elegant toned Pipes, with all the new Improvements. – No. 65, Swallow-street, Hanover-square (The Morning Post, London, 1 Apr. 1806) Thereafter O’Farrell continued to advertise prim- arily as a teacher, not a maker, of the pipes, and as a performer, but he regularly also offered for sale ‘fine-toned instruments’. In 1825 he was also dealing with bagpipes of different kinds: Mr. O’FARRELL, the celebrated Performer on the Union Pipes, respectfully acquaints Gentle- men that he TEACHES the above INSTRU- MENT in Three Weeks. All kinds of Pipes, Scotch, Irish, and Northumberland, are made and repaired, and may be had of him, with some favourite Scotch and Irish Music, at No. 4, Lower Cleveland-street, Fitzroy-square. – Mr. O’F. attends Ladies and Gentlemen’s Parties. (The Morning Post, London, 30 June 1825) As late as 1837, in his last-known advertise- ment, O’Farrell is still teaching and offering to accommodate gentlemen learners with ‘fine- toned instruments’ (The Morning Post, Lon- don, 15 Mar. 1837). It is not yet known when O’Farrell died, but it was obviously after this 1837 advertisement, and it may at least be speculated that a super- ior set of Irish union pipes advertised for sale in 1839 (of interest even in its own right) may have had a connection with him. The advert- isement appears in The Times of London (9 Apr. 1839), placed by ‘Mr. Bates, 6, Ludgate- hill’ where the pipes could be viewed. Bates was an organ-maker and general seller of mu- sical instruments: IRISH UNION PIPES for SALE, a complete set, of ebony wood, consisting of three regula- tors with 17 keys, chanter with five keys, and three drones. O’Farrell evidently had some reputation as a pipemaker as pipes attributed to him by name were advertised for sale in Birmingham in 1849 and again in 1851. On the first occasion it was as part of a sale of ‘Genteel Household Furniture and Effects, The genuine property of a Gentleman declining house-keeping’, and the list of effects, as well as a Cremona violin, in- cluded a ‘set of IRISH UNION PIPES by O’Farrell’ (Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 12 Feb. 1849). The gentleman had presumably been one of O’Farrell’s pupils, as O’Farrell is not known to have marked pipes of his manufac- ture. On the second occasion it was as part of an auction of ‘Superior Household Furniture’ which included a Broadwood piano-forte and ‘a set of UNION BAGPIPES by O’Farrell’ (Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 29 Dec. 1851). Possibly the same set was being sold a second time. Irish Traditional Music Archive

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