When I was a kid in Dublin about fifty years ago I was ushered next door to listen to a piper named Sean Dempsey. I have not heard his name since. Does anyone know anything about him?
He made a couple of 78 rpms. His greatest claim to fame was he was the piper that played for Hitler at the 1936 OLympics. In fact he arrived at the stage to find no piper’s chair, Goebels ordered a stormtrooper onto the stage to sit on hands and knees, dempsey played his tunes sitting on the man’s back.
Sean Dempsey was a character in a famous Dubliners ballad…The rare old times
A cooper by trade who had is girlfriend stolen by a blackman from Birmingham, UK. never mentions the fact that he was a piper though!!
Peter,
As a historian I would be very interested if you (or anyone else) could refer me to documentation redgarding this piper at the 1936 opening ceremony.
I’d be grateful. Thanks
Peter-now a picture of THAT…!
there’d be a thousand words there easily!
As a historian, please note I never mentioned the opening ceremony, Dempsey played with Rory O Connor’s dancers for a related event during the games. Hitler did send for him personally afterward, intrigued by the pipes and had both Goering and Goebbels checking out the instrument.
This article from An Piobaire (vol 2, no 37, 1989) has two newspaper clippings referring to the occasion, plus some additional information on Dempsey:
Thanks Peter…very cool! Oops, my own brain must’ve filled in the opening bit, sorry to misquote. Thanks so much for the doc., I love to share stories like this but don’t like to be doubted when I do..so it’s always good to have “backup”
Anyone know how to make the image larger so the text can be read?
For Windows: Right click, ‘save picture as…’ then find where you’ve saved it to, double click to open in picture viewer, zoom in and squint. Quality’s not that great but I reckon you’ll read most of it.
Hope that helps
j.i.
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Peter-now a picture of THAT…!
there’d be a thousand words there easily!
And there you have it: a souvenir album from 1936, once owned by Rudolph Hess, second in command and to Deputy Fuhrer to Adolph Hitler, was put up for auction in Munich by the Hess family. In it a photo of the group of Irish musicians and dancers, including the piper, caught in the act. The photo was taken when the group performed with Hess, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering in attendance, a week before the 1936 Olympics. All members of the group, including Dempsey, signed the book.
Article in the Irish Times:
Gott in Himmell. Danke!
Huh, first signatory in the album is “Liam Ó Flainn,” a long shot of course but could that be the father of the piper? Was Liam Sr. a dancer?
Last year a relative of Dempsey asked me about recordings of her great uncle, sent her what I had, warts and all. The set of reels on the Piping Rarities CD actually isn’t that bad but the other sides I have are mostly warts…worst…tuning…ever…
a long shot of course but could that be the father of the piper?
Yes it is.
Jim McGuire interviewed him about his trip to Germany.
Give him a call.
Tommy