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6 5 26 20101217 26 ~ SEANCHAS ~ PIPING IN KILDARE LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD’S BAG-PIPES T he following extract from the Register, vol. i, of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy is contributed by Mr. J. Casimir O’Meagher:– “These Bag-pipes, consisting of a leather bag with bellows attached, three ivory Drones mounted in silver, a Trumpet of the same metal, a ‘Regulator’ with five silver keys, and a box-wood brass bound Chanter with ivory circlets (said by the Vendor to have been portion of the instrument). On the ivory band portion of the stock is engraved – Egan, and on the silver band is the following Coat-of- Arms (This Coat-of-Arms has not been identified):– Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Gules, a tower argent between two men in armour, each holding a halbert, proper. 2nd and 3rd, Or, on a bend azure, three plates. Crest – A tower surmounted by a demi man in armour grasping in the dexter hand a halbert, proper. Motto – Fortitudo et Prudentia The inscription, ‘Lord Edward FitzGer- ald, 1766,’ is also engraved on the silver band. The bellows are of mahogany with mar- quetery border, and a shell ornament in an oval green ground. On the upper side in the latter there are two ivory perfora- tions. Purchased from George Tuke, of 5, Merrion-place, for £6, on the 27th March, 1876, who stated that these pipes were given to his mother by a member of the Duke of Leinster’s family in which she lived for many years as a domestic. Tuke, formerly a hackney-car driver, is now in his 80th year. His mother died at an advanced age; and he asserts that since her death this instrument has always been in his possession. Manufactured by Egan of Dublin, a well- known maker of Bag-pipes, father of the late eminent Harp-maker of Dawson- street in the same city.” This article appeared in The Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society, vol. II, no. 2, pp. 155-6 (Dublin 1896). The “Lord Edward” set of uilleann pipes, shown in the picture above, is now in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks. National Museum of Ireland

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2011-02-24T00:00:00

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