This is a line from the Sean Reid web page “ When he (Sean Reid ) last visited O ,Mealy he found him in unfortunate circumstances and sent him a few bags of coal “
According to O,Neill R.L.O,Mealy was a outstanding piper and an even more outstanding pipemaker
I wonder what happened ?
RORY
Or what didn’t happen. Most of the old generation of pro pipers left at the beginning of the 20th century seem to have died in poor houses or relative poverty somewhere … much like today … hmm, there’s a lesson in there somewhere. :roll:
djm
Richard O’Mealy was a regular visitor to my Grandfathers house"The gap" in Moate.Westmeath.Me mother remembers him well as he and my grandfather used to strike up a hornpipe or two whenever he visited and she had to dance to the music.He died in 1946 or 47,I wouldna say he was impoverished more or less than most other people of the time.His hayday was long over and Irish Music was no longer popular and of course he was unable to play the concerts that were once his income.Me mother,Rós Níc Adaim, still calls him the professor and he and me Grandfather Uilliam Mac Adaim(Pepper Adamson) would spend many a long night at the music.Neither he nor me grandfather ,to look at,would be considered comfortable,but they had a treasure greater than wealth,and that was their music which they enjoyed to the full. 
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
Garret Barry died in Ennistymon workhouse, Seamus Ennis alone in his caravan in Finglas. That’s the lot of the great it seems.
Can anyone comment on the workmanship, reputation of his pipes?
He had the greatest name ever as a middle name. God bless his parents, may they RIP, for their wisdom.
He had a great moustache…BTW, our C&F “member” Rick Hall has a superb moustache (I want one of those)…much like O’Mealy’s.
His sets looked a little like Taylor sets and a little like sets made by a chap named Hamilton. Hamilton’s sets looked like O’Mealy sets and Taylor sets and it is possible that they could be mistaken for one another in some cases if one did not have documented proof of craftsmanship.
That Tayloresque style is rather interesting and, after having seen an original Taylor owned by a C&F member, and a recent set made by DMQ that, IMHO, exceeds the asthetics presented by the Taylor bros, I can see why folks, including O’Mealy, were really enthralled by them and chose to make pipes with that general similar appearance.
Hello
Andy Conroy visited O’Meally some months before he died and found him bedridden. Andy sent the young lad, who lived next door, off to buy a can of porter as well as some groceries. ( that young lad was Sean Maguire, the fiddler).
Andy, who was a bricklayer, also used to hire Johnny Doran to be his laborer.
Very few pipers made a living out of it and many seemed to succomb to the lure of alcohol.
John Moran
R L O’Mealy made a series of recordings for the BBC in 1943 - for those who do not have a copy they can be heard from the link to Ross Anderson’s site below
There are also copies of his instructions on playing a number of tunes together with transcriptions to a piper by RL O’Mealy on Sean Reid Society Journal (CD) volume 1
Happy New Year to you all
Chris
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/music/index.html
and photographs of an O’Mealy set can be found here
http://www.uilleann.nl/pipes/pictureGallery/londonPipersClub/index.html
Thanks, Chris, for the tunes. I am amazed at O’Mealys’ playing! Really exquisite!
Richard O’Mealy was a regular visitor to my Grandfathers house"The gap" in Moate.
I’m really interested in the visits paid by O’Mealy to your grandfather. I am a g-g-neice of RL O’Mealy and I know that his grandfather’s people were from Horseleap before coming to live at Tristernagh. I beleive Horseleap is at or near Moate?
Do you know if there was any family relationship between Dick and your grandfather at all?
Hello Leslie? Yes Horseleap is just up the road frae Moate and me Auntie and some cousins live there.There was no family connection immediately between me grandad and your GG Uncle.The connection was of course the music.That said of course we are all related to each other at some point in time so maybe we should be nicer to each other as we are all cousins.
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
ps are ye in Cambridge? in Englandshire?
Cambridge piper Lucy D. is a great grandaughter of O’Mealy and has a nice boxwood set by O’Mealy, she plays a Dave Williams set as her main nowadays though.
Traveller piper Tim Rainey also died in the poorhouse in Galway back in ´54-55. Johnny Doran died in hospital. Felix Doran died in Grimsby after a excessive evening out, according to a son. I believe the Taylor Bros. died in poverty too, as did Michael Egan. I’m not sure how Willie Clancy died, a heart attack I believe?, but I’m not sure of the circumstances. Leo Rowsome passed away whilst officiating as a judge at a competition
Thanks Thomas I knew there was an O’Mealy relation in Cambridgeshire so now we can unite Great Granddaughter and Great Niece we should call this pipers reunited
ps I think ye could add poor auld Dave to your list of demised pipers after a night o music.RIP
Slán
Uilliam
:edited:
Mr. Bayley beat me to the link it seems.
by about 26 months too 
I thiink you meant this. By chance I found that the site has a new address meanwhile:
http://mulelia.demon.co.uk/pipes/pictureGallery/londonPipersClub/index.html
That’s the set previously owned by Uilliam’s Grandad, and is shown with the burly haggis himself in the top photo… the haggis is the one in the wee dressie. 
Thanks for the “burly haggis”, JES. I had never heard this and wetted myself.
"ps I think ye could add poor auld Dave to your list of demised pipers after a night o music.RIP " Liam
Aye Liam, well Dave ran out of road in October 2004. A terrible unforeseen accident. Still makes me sad thinking about that. I’ve been playing a flute I have that Dave made and it plays really well now. I haven’t seen Lucy D. for some years now but I assume she’s still piping and fiddling. Francis O’Rourke, the box player, whose dad had some nice old pipes in a box, knows Lucy.
… I am sooooo sorry Hans. 