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The O'Donnell Brothers - Nick Whitmer IN JUNE 2013 Bill Ochs of New York City told me of a couple from Long Island, Audrey and Brian Crotty, who had contacted him. They had a musical instrument, some kind of bagpipe, been in the basement for 30 years, and they wanted to know what they had. The set was in fact remarkable and elaborate, made by the Taylor Brothers of Philadelphia in the 19th century. In the basement along with the set, a trunk filled with material, much of it about piper Ed O’Donnell and his brother Cornelius, who had careers in vaudeville in the USA, roughly 1903-1914. Their act was called The O’Donnell Brothers. I ended up buying the pipes. The associated material, a scrapbook, photographs, posters, music printed and in manuscript, etc., was retained by the family, then subsequently donated to the Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and to the Irish Traditional Music Archive. I was fortunate enough to be provided with pictures of the material through the efforts of Bill Ochs and Ian Darson. Cornelius (1875-1941) and Edward (1876 or 1878­?) were born in the USA, probably Brooklyn. Father born in Ireland, possibly Donegal. Father John O’Donnell was a trained musician, certainly a violinist. They had three other brothers, one of whom was a saloon owner. Cornelius played violin, danced, and sang. Ed played Irish pipes and probably also highland pipes. In their vaudeville act Ed was the straight man, Cornelius the comedian. Cornelius was apparently the better actor of the two. More than once in reviews Ed was noted as a good musician, Cornelius not so much. Note that Cornelius played the violin and Ed played the Irish pipes, never “fiddle” or “uilleann” pipes. In their promotional material the Brothers claimed to have played – and Ed to have won a bagpipe prize – at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. I have yet to find any independent confirmation of this. Their first known engagement was in the summer of 1903, playing at the “Irish Village” attraction at Luna Park,

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2014-02-14T00:00:00

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