Who is responsible for saving the UP's from extinction

Uilleann Pipes
1

Hello All,

I know that my history is not going to be anywhere accurate but I have read that around the 60’s and 70’s that Uilleann pipes, and the playing of the pipes was dwindling to a few numbers; and then there was a rekindling of interest.

My intention is not to start some type of huge (potentially rough debate), but if you had to name 5 pipemakers (internationally) who helped with the “resurrection” and proliferation of the pipes I would like your input. Those of you who are pipemakers - your input would especially be welcome.

Thank you.

2

Of the pipe-makers, obviously Leo Rowsome would be high on the list, as would Johnny Bourke, Matt Kiernan and Alf Kennedy. Who was making pipes in the US and UK in the 60s and 70s? These were the people keeping the flame burning.

Those who ignited interested in piping were not necessarily pipe-makers. Who was behind organising the 1968 Bettystown meeting? Not just pipe-makers, in fact, pipe-makers were very few. People like Sean Reid, Breandán Breathnach, etc. (check the list of NPU patrons) worked tirelessly behind the scenes to secure funding, preserve instruments, collect and record music, and organise gatherings, concerts, schools.

I don’t think you could credit any 5 pipe-makers with saving the uilleann pipes from extinction.

3

There may be some helpful information here:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/the-wheels-of-the-world-300-years-of-irish-uilleann-pipers/93131/1

4

There was also a serious decline in piping and pipe-making in the post-Famine years (1850s onwards). An argument could be made that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Irish-American communities in Boston, NY, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc., kept the tradition alive when it was in danger of dying out in Ireland.

5

I am not sure you could look at the renewed interest in the pipes and solely credit the makers who kept going (and I would add to PJ’s list people like Dan O’Dowd and others who mentored a new generation of makers and the makers like Tom White who provided pipers with instruments at little cost, just to get them going). You can’t get around looking at the tireless organisers and campaigners like Breandan Breathnach, Seán Reid and the circle who started Na Piobairi Uilleann. Things were set in motion on different levels and they worked together to get us where we are now.

6

In the north you had Brian Vallely and his tireless efforts culminating in the Armagh Pipers Club from 1966 through the present day.

7

One of the largest contributions to the saving of the Pipes , an endangered species by the mid 1960’s, would have to be the popularity of groups like Planxty and The Bothy Band, also The Cheiftains and the Furey Brothers. I vividly recall during a visit to Dublin in 1974 how the record shops were playing Planxty tracks amplified into the streets. This must have stimulated interest with the younger generations at the time as there were some Top Ten hits in the Irish Pop Charts form these bands.

Television programes and a general promotion of Irish culture with associations like NPU , Comhaltas, Cork Pipers club and the Armagh Piper’s club all nicely placed to feed the curious with knowledge and point people to the Summer Schools for more encouragement.

The Pipemakers grew up as a natural response to the lack of available instruments for the new generation of pipers. My own story started as a desire to make myself a set and even before I had completed anything usefull I had other people asking if I would make one for them… and so it has continued ! :slight_smile:

8

Seán Ó Riada and Ceoltóirí Chualann (fl. 1960 - 1969) preceded Planxty, Bothy Band, Chieftains, etc. They were certainly the catalyst for the “Irish music revival” and sparked a wider awareness and appreciation of the pipes. The first time I heard the pipes was on the album Ó Riada sa Gaiety (40 years ago this Easter!). That’s what did it for me. But nothing is simple. Were the pipes actually headed for extinction? Prior to the 1960s, there was a solid core of pipers, of all ages; the pipes were actively being taught; there was a handful of makers; there was a trickle of recordings and radio broadcasts. In baroque music, in the 1970s, there was a move to original instruments and reproductions. Who knows if the revival of the pipes wasn’t also part of that? Zeitgeist and all that. Oh for a time machine!

9

I think that the pipes (and ITM in general) have had many “near-death” experiences and, conversely, revivals. Think of the post-famine years in Ireland, versus the near-simultaneous rise of interest in the US cities which hosted large Irish communities.

The instrument will always attract a sufficient number of passionate (and obsessive) pipers and makers to keep it alive.

10

A friend told me every piper in the Eastern US in the 80s seemed to have a Eugene Lambe set. By the same token practically all the pipers around San Francisco did business with Alan Ginsberg the late 70s. Were these two the most prolific pipemakers in that era? I try and think of others making pipes and no one else compares in terms of production volume, they all seem to be casual/hobbyist makers like Pat McNulty, Bruce du Ve, Tom White; or full time makers who just didn’t turn out quite so much, like Johnny Bourke or Dave Quinn.

Alan and Eugene turned out decent stuff too, not quite Rowsome but it got/gets the job done. Alan’s blueprints were very helpful to those wanting to make pipes themselves, and let’s not forget Wilbert Garvin and his book.

Geoff Wooff of course rediscovered the real flat pipes, and what a great job he did/does of it too. Repeat after me, thrice: HIP HIP HOORAY! “Flat’s where it’s at.” :thumbsup:

11

Is this thread too narrow in its arguments around musicians, makers, as to whom or who, etc.

Is it not a conjunction of politics, empowerment, and a drive towards identity, that drove this revival? The survival of UP’s goes hand in hand with the revival of language, song, poetry. Those folk quoted as being responsible for the UP’s survival, were surely also heavily involved in the wider recording/revival of Irish Gaelic Cultural life, but pre-ceded by the likes of Bros Gildas and et al.
Pwrt

12

Add favourable economic conditions which allow pipers to buy an expensive instrument. The wave of interest in ITM and piping which (I maintain) started in the early 1990s is closely linked to the rise of the Celtic Tiger.

13

I would agree broader cultural forces were part of the picture.

Here in Cape Breton there was a famous documentary “The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler.” And indeed, they were vanishing in the 60s and 70s; I rarely heard trad music at that time in Cape Breton. Us youngsters were far more interested in rock and roll. Trad still existed only in kitchen parties in the rural hinterlands.

It was ironically this documentary that stimulated the remaining fiddlers to mobilize, form a promotional association, try to revitalize the traditional playing style, music, etc.

This parallels the trajectory of the UPs, even without the challenge of getting hold of a functional set that is the bane of piping. Fiddlers can actually play violins and lots of those could also be come by at much more reasonable ( I’m only alluding to affordability here, not the time and skill to produce UPs) cost.

I did hear and have some interest in the GHB as a youngster, but the military tradition didn’t interest a rebel such as myself. And in any case, my mom was not keen on a GHBer in a large family with a small house. Sensible enough.

Later I met the MacNeils from the group The Bara MacNeils, who while hailing from Cape Breton, were heavily influenced by Irish trad, and had a greater variety of instruments and styles that the usual Scottish influence fiddle with piano accompaniment typical here. The Barras were part of the trad music revival here in Eastern Canada.

It took a live Chieftan’s concert though for me to get a UP obsession (thanks Paddy!).

A younger sibling of the family group The Barra MacNeils went on the play the UPs and I had many a fine tune with him over the years until he married a South African lady and moved to the country. My daughter now takes violin (fiddle) from one of the older Barra MacNeils, and although she is more interested in classical repertoire she plays more trad because you just can’t escape it.

The film maker responsible for the "Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler’ is talking about doing an updated documentary.

Anyway, a strong parallel with trad music tradition based on the fiddle here on the other side of the pond does suggest the importance of broader social/cultural forces at work.

Mike

14

In England you also had Dave Williams making pipes from 1977 onwards. Davis’s pipes were/are favored by Traveller pipers. Big John Rooney, Johnny Purcell among others were playing Dave’s pipes in the early 1980’s. Dave had contact with Alan Ginsburg to begin with and attended a two year course at the Newark violin collage, learning to make and repair woodwind instruments. As professional musicians there were pipers in Ireland such as John Doran, Cash the piper, Gorman the piper, Garrett Barry in the early 1900’s keeping piping alive. In Donegal you had Patrick Haley and Tarlach Mac Suibhne, and later Felix & Johnny Doran plus Tony Rainey traveling around Ireland helped to keep the pipes visible during the 1930-1940s, and inspired budding pipers in Co. Clare such as Willie Clancy, Michael Falsey, Martin Rochford. I doubt the uilleann pipes would ever have died out. There was always someone making a racket on them.

15

Damn… I thought it was David Attenborough

16

Many people have mentioned the 60s and 70s but then the Folk Music Revival was well underway and many people were discovering ITM.

In Francis O Neill’s turn of the century writings his fear that the uilleann pipes were in danger of extinction is palpable. The instrument had in fact become extinct in Britain a century before.

The nadir, I suppose, would have been in the Great Wars period when many people were turning from traditional dancing to swing dancing and so forth.

Don’t know if it’s true- I can scarcely believe it- but I recall reading somewhere that at one point there were only three uilleann pipemakers in Ireland and the number of pipers could be counted on your fingers.

17

Chris Bayley in England was making pipes in the late 70’s. Dave Williams came to him for advice around then, and was shown how to bore out using D bits, etc. Chris gave him his first D bit - 5/32" if I remember rightly. They bought consumables together (wood, tubing, etc.) over a number of years, and exchanged information over a longer period.

John Addison was also making UPs at that time, as were Wilkinson and McCarthy, and I know Alan Ginsberg used to get the ferry over to Ireland at weekends, to study with Dan O’Dowd and Matt Kiernan.

Mike

18

Clearly Leo Rowsome is central. There has never been another figure in piping who excelled at pipe making, teaching and performing/recording. There is no one else in piping who straddles those three disciplines as he did. We have great makers. Great performers. Great teachers. But I don’t know anyone other than Leo that embodied all three of those gifts.

Other than Leo, it’s important to credit what today might be called part time or amateur makers. I use that term reservedly because it does not reflect at all on the quality of the instruments, but they were putting instruments in people’s hands during the middle decades of the 20th century. Makers such as Patsy Brown and Pat Hennelly in the US. Dan O’Dowd and Matt Kiernan in Ireland. Chris Langan in Canada. And others. To my mind those part time makers bridge an important gap, and in many cases were mentors to some of today’s top professional makers.

19

“The nadir, I suppose, would have been in the Great Wars period when many people were turning from traditional dancing to swing dancing and so forth. Don’t know if it’s true- I can scarcely believe it- but I recall reading somewhere that at one point there were only three uilleann pipemakers in Ireland and the number of pipers could be counted on your fingers.” Pancelticpiper.

I don’t think it was ever that bad really. From 1900 to the 1960’s in Ireland you had William Rowsome, R. O’Mealy, Leo Rowsome, Tadgh & Denis Crowley, Moss Kennedy, Dan O’Dowd, Matt Kiereran- That’s eight makers. In 2015 Na Piobairí Uilleann lists thirteen active uilleann pipemakers in Ireland.


Plenty of pipers too in Ireland 1900-1960’s to name a few: Turlogh McSweeney, Peter Kelly, Ned Hogan, Gorman the piper, Nicholas Markey, Samuel Rowsome, John Rowsome, Stephen Ruane, James Early, Canon Goodman, Garrett Barry, John Cummings, Denis Delaney, Bernard Delaney, Mollie Morrissey, John S. Wayland, Denis O’ Leary, William Andrews, John Cash, Mary McCarthy, Leo Rowsome, Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Sean Reid, Peter Loughlin, Johnny Doran, Felix Doran, Tony Rainey, Martin Rochford, Dan O’Dowd, Richard O’Mealy …

20

1900 to 1960 is a broad time-period around three generations long (using the common reckoning of 20-year generations).

What that quote I had heard was referring to was the bottleneck, the specific point in time (when? around 1940? 1950?) when the number of makers and players was at its smallest.

So… for sake of argument, how many active makers were there in Ireland in, say, 1945? (To pick a specific point in time.) Perhaps all those you mention?

As people have pointed out, even if the pipes had become extinct in Ireland there were North American makers to carry the torch.