http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2547765703&category=16226
The description says it was made in 1977 and hasn’t been played in 23 years.
Anyone have information on Matt Keirnan?
Matt Kiernan made a lot of pipes, in a crude fashion; nothing fancy, but better not fancy than nothing in those days (1970s and such). Jimmy O-Brian-Moran started on a Matt Kiernan C practice set; Pat Mitchell and Gay McKeon still use C chanters of his.
This brings to mind something Geoff Woofe told me, how pipers who had got their start back then had spent their pipes money, and were sticking with what they had, even though everything being made then basically sucked. If you can get this Kiernan chanter for cheap it’s a find, I suppose; a collector’s item of a sort; he was playing pipes from way back; but for real money you’d be better off with a real pipemaker. I also recall a friend who visited Matt in the 70s; in the evening’s dark it just stayed that way, Matt didn’t fire up a lamp or anything, they just sat in the dark talking shop. That must be when he fired up the lathe, from the looks of his spaceship/baseball bat pipes…
I have seen a number of similar chanters to this and even considered buying one. I learned at the time that Matt Kiernan was a police man and used to get his hands on old police truncheons that were made of black wood / ebony. It is rumoured that he used these to make some chanters, possibly the one on Ebay? An implement once used to inflict pain on to others now transformed into a chanter!
It’s untoward, to be kind, to speak with snotty arrogance about the work of a man who supplied (as you yourself, Kevin, point out) a large part of the burgeoning piping community in the Dublin environs and beyond with instruments and support in the not-too-distant past. With 20/20 hindsight and the easy-won use of resources like the internet, not to mention the explosive proliferation of full-time pipemakers brought into existence by demand, Kiernan’s work may indeed seem a little rough. I recently exchanged e-mails with Gay McKeon about a Kiernan C set and he was candid about the shortcomings of some Kiernan chanters. He was still very enthusiastic about their tone, however, and the fact that he was still using the chanter after he had started playing Cillian O’Briaian’s work speaks to his ongoing enjoyment of the instrument. To imply that Kiernan was not a “real pipemaker” and that his work belongs in the category “when everything sucked” is just disrespectful and simple-minded.
Emer Mayock owns a Kiernan chanter in C that’s made from greenheart.
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Geez!
I have loads of respect for Matt Kiernan and people like him, they kept piping going when hardly anyone cared about Irish music in whatever form, teaching reedmaking and so forth. But his pipes are pretty rough around the edges, whatever you say. It didn’t help that I wrote that when I was really tired and guzzling down bottles of Widmer Ale…
I’d heard that Matt made chanters from truncheons made from Lignum Vitae, which is about the heaviest wood there is. One very knowledgable person told me he thought his flat chanters looked like they’d play quite well, better than some Rowsomes. Sorry about the smartass remarks! Gay and Pat M. really go to town on theirs, no denying. And I also have a tape of Brian Gallagher, who I think lives in Leitrim? Playing away on a Kiernan C.
I used to own a Kiernan C 1/2 set in greenheart. It had great tone, was easy to reed and well in tune. Matt made affordable pipes that worked. I have seen tuning problems on several of his D chanters, but most of the flat pitch stuff was great. Many pipers got their start on his pipes both because the price made them affordable and they worked. I think the style is distinctive, and would be happy to play and own any number of chanters of his that I have had the good fortune to play or reed. A. Rogge got his start making pipes by first working with Matt, as did several others in the early 70’s. There are now being made too many chanters and sets that are fancier looking but don’t play as well as most of Matt’s.
Ted
Okay…knawck it off you guys, you’re just driving the price up. I was prepared to pay $132 for it yesterday, but now it’s $202. I suppose I’d go some more just for the pleasure of playing it. You could always redo the outside but who would want to if it’s such a unique classic.
OK, Kevin, gracefully done. I admit to being defensive of the man’s work, since it was Gay McKeon’s set on “The Iron Behind The Velvet”, played on a Kiernan C, that really got me going on the pipes. I agree, the overall standard of the workmanship is rough by today’s general standard. Sink a Widmer for me.
L
Somewhere’s I heard that you could just get a practice set from Matt and pay him back when you had the chance. He just wanted to see people learning to play. I also remember something about him using old bayonets for reamers. Jerry O’Sullivan uses a Michael Dow bellows that’s patterned after one of Kiernan’s mile-wide jobs.
There! Warn’t nuthin’ fancy, thems, but they “stopped a gap,” as they say, pretty well, apparently.
So, has Gay McKeon tried a O’Brian C chanter for his Coyne pipes, and found it lacking? And what’s this I hear about someone sitting on those pipes at some point, with disastrous results?
Does Cillian make flat chanters? Don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
Last I saw, summer 2000 I think it was, Gay was using an Andreas Rogge C chanter with his Coyne set. Havn’t heard about the sitting incident… God help the poor bugger that did though! Can you imagine??? 
PD.
Cillian doesn’t do flats. I don’t know if he ever tinkered with them in the distant past, but he hasn’t put any “out” for playing. But he sure as hell made a good job of understanding and developing (IMO) concert pitch pipes. And a black belt piper too he is!
Alan
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Gentlemen,
Wasn’t Paddy Keenan’s original set a Kiernan chanter with Crowley drones/regs?
Paddy was playing a Leo Rowsome chanter with a Crowley body up until a couple of years ago. He now plays a K&Q boxwood chanter with a Dave Williams body, both of which are based on his old set.
Ted