Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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71 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES Britain. But these Irish players also simply used the term ‘union pipes’. Both varieties of the term are also found used by professional pipers, both Scottish and Irish, in Australia (from 1815) 229 and in Canada (from 1835). 230 But by the fourth decade of the century, with its virtual disappearance from the British stage, the instrument seems to have come to the end of its run of popularity in Britain. It had by no means however disappeared from more modest venues such as taverns and halls there. Outstanding new Irish players on the ‘union pipes’, such as the blind William Talbot from Roscrea, Co Tiperary, about 1822, 231 continued to find it worth their while to play in Britain and arrived there from Ireland at intervals until the 1850s, and Irish street players occasionally appear in court reports. 232 P. O’Farrell was continuing with his British career on the instrument as late as 1837. 233 But, with the advertisement in 1833 by a Mr Dixon in Newcastle-upon-Tyne of a ‘Pair of Union Bag Pipes and a Pair of Highland Bag-Pipes, no worse than new, may be bought for Half their Value’, 234 there begins a litany of ‘union pipes’ advertised for discounted disposal at auctions, pawnbroker clearances and 229 Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Sydney, 20 May 1815; 2 Sept. 1815. The newspaper of the first date has already been cited for the notice inserted by a presumably Scottish piper James Stewart about his ‘Set of Union Pipes’; the second has an advertisement from a shop selling musical instruments including ‘Union Pipes’. 230 Quebec Gazette, Quebec, 20 March 1835. The newspaper carries a notice of a St Patrick’s Day dinner at which a Mr Macnally played on the ‘Irish Union Pipes’. I am obliged to Patrick McSweeney, Quebec, for a copy of this reference. 231 Morning Chronicle, London, 13 Dec. 1822. 232 Morning Post, London, 14 Jan. 1830; Carolan 2005: 24–29; Matthews 2011: 15–23. 233 O’Farrell was still advertising as a teacher in London in Morning Post, London, 15 Mar. 1837. 234 Newcastle Courant, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 17, 31 Aug. 1833.
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 72 rummage sales which would last, decade after decade, in England, Scotland and Ireland, for the rest of the century. 235 These advertisements do indicate however that a subterranean union-pipes culture continued at some strength in all three countries through the century. They show an appreciation of quality of manufacture: ‘extra silver keys on chaunter’, 236 ‘black ebony, silver and ivory mounted, one note under concert pitch’; 237 of cost: ‘set of Union bagpipes which cost £20’; 238 and of makers: ‘Kenna’, 239 ‘M’Donald, Edinburgh’, 240 ‘first class Union Pipes, made by Coin’. 241 Swaps are contemplated: ‘Wanted, a sharp Set of Union Pipes. Will give money or sweet low set (bass attached)’. 242 One English piper of Scottish origins, the noted travelling Newcastle-upon-Tyne comedian and self-declared player of the ‘union pipes’ Billy Purvis, kept the instrument before audiences in the north of England from about 1815 until his death in 1853. 243 Willy or Billy Bolton of Yorkshire was playing ‘union-pipes’ about 1845 244 and continued until 1870. 245 In the mid-nineteenth century there is said to have been an Irish piper in Britain for every day of the year, 246 but by 1896 Thomas Garoghan, born in Coventry in 1845 of Mayo parents, was able to advertise himself in Sheffield as ‘the only Professor and last of the old bards 235 Pawnshop advertisements for unredeemed union pipes had been appearing at least as early as 1818 (Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, 18 June 1818) but there is no indication in them that the pipes were being then discounted. 236 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Dublin, 4 July 1843. 237 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Dublin, 23 June 1896. 238 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Dublin, 7 Dec. 1887. 239 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Dublin, 7, 8 May 1846. 240 Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, 3 Apr. 1857. 241 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Dublin, 25, 26 Aug. 1897. 242 Liverpool Mercury, Liverpool, 29 Mar. 1887. 243 Proud & Butler 1983: 29; Moylan 2006: 28–9. 244 J.H. Dixon 1846: 226, quoted in Cannon 1971: 142. 245 Schofield 1975: 90. 246 O’Neill 1913: 286.
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Denis Courtney on stage in Oscar an
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