Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

5

7 5 20 20111214 20 ~ Seanchas ~ NOTES ON THE WEXFORD GENTLEMAN PIPER LARRY GROGAN (1702–1728/9) PART 1 Seán Donnelly T HE NOTES that follow here correct or add to my article, ‘A Wexford gentleman piper: “Famous Larry Grogan” (1701– 28/9)’, Journal of the Wexford Historical So- ciety xvi (1996–7), 41–65. Page numbers in brackets refer to this article. As readers may not have seen the original, a brief summary fol- lows. Grogan was the fourth son and sixth child of John Grogan (1653–1721), first of his line at Johnstown Castle, Rathaspick, co. Wex- ford, by his second wife, Anne Smith. He was possibly the Laurence Grogan who qualified as an attorney in Dublin in May 1726. Around this time, he was to be found playing in the Conniving House on Sandymount Strand near Ringsend, with the fiddler and dancer, Jack Lattin (1710–31) of Morristown Lattin, Naas, co. Kildare. Both died young, Grogan in Bar- bados between March 1728 and May 1729, and Lattin in July 1731, traditionally as the re- sult of a marathon dance he undertook for a bet. 1 The jig, ‘Larry Grogan’, first published in 1734, one of the most widely distributed of all Irish dance tunes, is the ancestor of ‘Coppers and Brass’ and the ‘Humours of Ennistymon’. Also published in 1734 was ‘Jack Lattin’, which became so popular in the piping tradi- tions of the north of England and Lowland Scotland that it is usually assumed to have originated in those traditions. Bacchanalian songs in Grogan’s praise were written to the jig named after him, as was ‘The County of Lim- erick Buck-Hunt’, by Pierce Creagh of Dan- gan, Quin, co. Clare, which begins ‘By your leave, Larry Grogan’. A different tune called ‘Larry Grogan’, an instrumental piece rather than a jig, in the Forde Collection in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, was published by P.W. Joyce in 1909. 2 To Grogan himself are also attributed the words of the celebrated eighteenth-century comic song, ‘Ally Croker’. Both ‘Ally Croker’ and ‘The County of Lim- erick Buck-Hunt’ are discussed in the second section of these notes. GROGAN’SDATEOFBIRTH In my article, I said that Larry Grogan was born on 11 March 1701, assuming that dates in the Grogan pedigree of 1807 had been mod- ernised, with the year beginning on 1 January. 3 A recheck has shown that the dates, copied from older family documents, were not altered. The piper’s date of birth, then, was the 11 March 1702. This is confirmed by a note in the Grogan Papers (which I had copied but then overlooked) taken from a family prayer-book. This stated that Larry was born on a Wednes- day, the correct day of the week for 11 March 1702. 4 A MORBID AND MISERLY FATHER If Larry Grogan was a convivial rake, full of music and jollity, which is the impression given by the songs in his praise, then he was

7

20

[Periodical]

2011-12-01T00:00:00

anonymous,guest,friend,member