Michael J. Gallagher uilleann

Lives of the Pipers Home

Michael J. Gallagher

performer; commercial and private recordings exist

b. Killarga, Leitrim, Ireland Oct. 9, 1886
d. Queens, New York Jan. 11, 1971


Irish Music Club Ball This Saturday
NY Advocate Nov. 18, 1922 p. 2 column 3
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0427.pdf



"Group of New York Musicians photographed in 1916 [or 1923]
"Front row (l to r): Jack Brady, Jack Crowley, Michael Gallagher, Peter Gallagher, Ed Crowley;
"Middle row (l to r): Michael Coleman, Barney Griffin, John Creamer, Peter Flynn;
"Back row (l to r): Jack Murray, Dan Flood, James Hayden, Frank O'Neill, Dan Campbell.
"(Courtesy - Irish Traditional Music Archive)"
An Piobaire vol. 4 no. 20 April 2003 pp. 16-17
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1013&mediaId=26006
Photo in the Tom Busby collection of photographs at Na Píobairí Uilleann.


Michael Gallagher was one of several Irish pipers active in New York City in the 1920s and 30s. What is different about Gallagher is that his playing was recorded and that some of the recordings are very, very good. Historian Sean Donnelly, in a biography of Gallagher, writes of his playing, "The blurring and fumbling found in much of the piping recorded in the 20s and 30s is totally absent."

Gallagher was born in Killarga, Leitrim, in 1886. His parents were John and Ellen, and he had at least four siblings. His father was described as a farmer in the 1901 Ireland Census. Local tradition has it that Gallagher played flute, not pipes, and must have taken up the pipes after he emigrated to the United States.

He emigrated to New York City, probably around 1910, and married Beatrice Joyce in Manhattan Oct. 1915. For most of his working life he was a motorman, a driver of a trolley or subway car. He worked for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), which was absorbed by the New York City Transit system in 1940. Piper Andy Conroy recalls that he retired in the early 1950s. A World War II Draft Registration Card, filled out in 1942 when he was 55 years old, describes him as five foot eleven inches, 162 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, light complexion.

Michael and Beatrice had two children, John and Mary. An account of a ball in 1931, sponsored by the County Leitrim Boys and Girls, mentions "Miss Mary Gallagher, daughter of the famous County Leitrim piper, Michael Gallagher, who played for her in an exhibition of hornpipe and jig."

The family lived in The Bronx at least from 1920 until after 1940, then to Woodside, Queens, until his death in 1971.

Earliest mention of him as a musician is in March 1921, "the Champion Irish Piper," playing at a reception of the Richmond Hill Council for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. In December of that year he won first prize for Irish Union Pipes at the New York State Gaelic League Feis. It is not known how he learned to play pipes or from whom. He was well thought of by Michael Carney, the top piper in New York City in the 1920s, and was a friend of Tom Busby, one of Carney's students.

Almost all of his known engagements were in the NYC area, mostly for dancing. In 1928 he played weekly on radio station WBNY, a ten or fifteen minute segment on Friday or Wednesday evenings. More radio appearances followed in the 1930s.

He was active in clubs and societies and must have had some organizational skills. It is clear that he helped organize the Irish Music Club and supported benefits for repairs to a church in Creevela, Leitrim. "Michael Gallagher" is an unusually common name. Did he also take part in the Kings County (Ireland) S. and B. Association, the Co. Leitrim Men's P. S. B. A. Assn. or the Offaly Men's Benevolent Ass'n? A Michael J. Gallagher was active in all of these, but even a great deal of research might fail to show if this was - or was not - the piper. During these years there was also a Bronx policeman and a dance instructor of the same name.

Michael J. Gallagher the piper was one of the founders of the Irish Music Club (1922-23) which, while it lasted, had an impressive and piper-heavy roster of musicians and sponsored some memorable events. Here is a report of their first annual entertainment and dance, May 6, 1922:

The group photo, above, might well be a picture of the Irish Music Club, Feb. 1923, but Harry Bradshaw recalls meeting a woman in Leitrim who knew Gallagher and received a copy of the photograph from him. At her request Gallagher wrote down the names of the musicians and and the date taken, 1916. Be that as it may most of the men in the photo were associated with the Irish Music Club; ten of the fourteen are mentioned in newspaper coverage of club activities.

In 1923 and 1924 Gallagher recorded two 78 rpm records. Donnelly writes that private recordings were made of his playing in the 1950s or 60s.

Gallagher was a member of the Tri-Color Ramblers, a dance band associated with the Tri-Color Ballroom in The Bronx, 1930. He played accordion in this band. The instrumentation was two accordions, banjo and "traps and drums." Years later, fiddle player Louis Quinn recalled that Gallagher changed to accordion for more volume in the dance-band environment.

Newspaper references stop after 1932. Little is known about his life in later years. Andy Conroy spoke of him in an interview from the 1980s. Conroy was introduced to Gallagher through Tom Busby about 1952, when Conroy was living in New York. He visited Gallagher many times. Conroy recalled him as being "fond of the old bottle." Gallagher was still playing, but "that crispness that he had on the record, it was lost."

Gallagher returned to Ireland and Leitrim several times in his life, according to both Bradshaw and Donnelly, the last time perhaps being in 1961. He died Jan. 11, 1971, about 85 years old, survived by his wife and son, last address Woodside, Queens, New York. Gallagher was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens.


Selected References


Bradshaw, Harry private communication [the group photograph; Gallagher's returns to Ireland] Jan. 2018

"Death Notices GALLAGHER-Michael J." NY Daily News Jan. 13, 1971 p. 42 column 3
New York NY Daily News 1971 01603_1.pdf

Donnelly, Sean "Michael J. Gallagher" [biography; recordings commercial and private] An Píobaire vol. 3 no. 4 September 1990 pp. 14-15
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1012&mediaId=25950

"Entertainment and Dance for the Repairs of Creevelea R. C. Church" NY Advocate Feb. 21, 1925 p. 2 column 6
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1925-1927 - 0095.pdf

Hayden, James A. "News, Notes & Comment Irish Music Club Doings." [the Club had a photograph taken] NY Advocate March 3, 1923 p. 2 column 3
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0557.pdf

Hayden, James A. "News, Notes & Comment Gallagher's New Bagpipe Records." NY Advocate Sep. 22, 1923 p. 2 column 3
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0797.pdf

Hegarty, Dave "Andy Conroy Interview" [recorded by Hegarty in the late 1980s] Seán Reid Society Journal vol. 2 2009 article 3.18
http://seanreidsociety.org/SRSJ3/3.18/Andy%20Conroy%20Interview.pdf
associated sound file "Interview with Andy Conroy"
http://seanreidsociety.org/SRSJ3/3.18/Andy_Conroy_Interview.mp3

"Irish Music Club Have Successful Affair." NY Advocate May 13, 1922 p. 6 column 3
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0189.pdf

"Leitrim at the Tri-Color." NY Advocate Jan. 31, 1931 p. 8 column 4
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1930-1931 - 0671.pdf

"N. Y. Gaelic League Feis of 1921" NY Advocate Dec. 17, 1921 p. 3 column 1
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1919-1921 - 1335.pdf

Quinn, Louis (1904-1991), interview with Mick Moloney May 17, 1977, pp. 9-10 [switched to accordion] Moloney Collection, Tamiment Library, New York University
https://moloney.library.nyu.edu
Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Field Recordings Series 1 Box 29
https://moloney.library.nyu.edu/finding_aids/mick-moloney-irish-american-music-and-popular-culture-field-recordings

Spottswood, Richard K. Ethnic Music on Records: a discography of ethnic recordings produced in the United States, 1892 to 1942 University of Illinois Press 1990 Vol. 5 p. 2772

Standeven, Tom letter [Gallagher known to Michael Carney] The Uilleann Piper vol. 1 no. 2 May 22, 1974 p. 2
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1037&mediaId=26432

"To-Day's Radio Programme ... 9:10[-9:30 p. m.]-Michael Gallagher, Irish piper." Brooklyn [NY] Standard Union Feb. 24, 1928 p. 9 column 3
Brooklyn NY Standard Union 1928 - 4487.pdf

"Tri-Color Ballroom Drawing the Crowds" NY Advocate Sep. 27, 1930 p. 9 column 6
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1930-1931 - 0476.pdf

Nick Whitmer
Jan. 2019; additions Oct. 2021, Oct. 2023