William F. Hanafin
player; private recordings exist
b. Callinafercy, Co. Kerry Nov. 20, 1875
d. Boston, Massachusetts Nov. 9, 1924
William F. Hanafin, Michael C. Hanafin, and Sean O'Nolan, circa 1900 [perhaps closer to 1910], Box 1, Folder 3, William F. and Michael C. Hanafin Family Papers, IM.M143.2005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
"Irish Piper's Club. Boston Mass 1917" Photo in the Tom Busby collection of photographs, at Na Píobairí Uilleann.
John Marron 1st row 2nd from left. William Hanafin 1st row 3rd from left; Michael Hanafin 1st row 6th from left
William Hanafin was active in the Boston area in the first quarter of the twentieth century. He and his brother Michael (1880-1970) performed often as the Hanafin Brothers; William was most often mentioned as a piper, Michael as fiddler. In earlier years, say before 1908, they had a good reputation as dancers, one account describing them as "admittedly the greatest team of step dancers in the country...."
Francis O'Neill met William Hanafin in Boston in 1905, was favorably impressed with him. Much of what is known about Hanafin's early life comes from an account of him in O'Neill's book Irish Minstrels and Musicians.
The brothers grew up on a farm near Milltown, Co. Kerry. Their house was a center of local musical activity. William began playing whistle, flute and fiddle as a boy. He immigrated to Boston in 1889, fourteen years old. He became a friend if not protege of well-known fiddler Daniel Sullivan (circa 1851-1912). O'Neill says he bought a "bag and chanter" from John S. Harney (c1845-1902), a Boston piper. Perhaps this was in the mid or late 1890s, since there is newspaper mention of him playing pipes at a dance in 1901. Not long after Hanafin began playing pipes he met Pat Touhey, one of the foremost pipers of the day, in a Boston hotel. They became friends and Touhey gave him pipe lessons whenever in town. Touhey was supposed to have said "Billy Hanafin was as fine a fiddler as I have ever heard."
The Hanafin Brothers played at concerts and dances in the Boston area, and once in a while out of state. Almost all of these events were sponsored by social clubs and church groups. There is no evidence that the Hanafins, as a brother team or as individuals, toured as a theatrical act or in vaudeville. No mentions of their engagements or performing schedule have been found in trade publications like the New York Dramatic Mirror or New York Clipper. Their ambitions, while William was alive, seemed almost purely local.
The Hanafins were mainstays of the Irish Pipers' Club of Boston, which was active from 1909 to at least 1917. Generous newspaper coverage in 1915-16 indicates an active organization with regular monthly meetings, annual meetings, reunions, concerts, dances. This was primarily a social club. Perhaps half the members were musicians, but only a few played pipes. A group photograph from 1917, with the Hanafin brothers in the first row, shows 30 men and two boys. Four hold pipes, three hold flutes, seven fiddles, 18 hold no instrument. Newspaper coverage stops in 1917. An Irish Pipers' Club of Boston emerged in 1924, but it was a reorganized, if not a different club, with a focus on war pipes and a Pipers Band.
William Hanafin married Mary A. Sullivan in 1903 or 1904. At the time he was a bartender. His US Military Draft Registration card, Sept. 1918, describes him as "Height Tall Build Slender Color of Eyes Blue Color of Hair Light Is person obviously physically disqualified? No ... Present Occupation Bartender ..." The 1920 US Census gives his occupation as "Wine clerk [at] Retail house." Brother Michael's occupation according to the 1910 US Census was also "wine clerk liquor store," and in the 1920 Census given as "Salesman Liquors."
William and Mary had at least seven children. Some were active in music and dance. Organizers of an annual reunion event for the local Council of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic "invited the famous Kerry Irish piper, Billy Hanafin, and his popular daughters, who were State prize winners in the art of Irish step dancing, to take part," February 1924. Perhaps this was one of his last engagements.
William Hanafin died in 1924. In 2012 "Steampacket" posted to Chiff and Fipple Web forum in a topic about the Hanafin brothers and suggested that he "died before 1920 of influenza." An obituary says he died very suddenly "due to acute indigestion." A Massachusetts "Copy of Record of Death" document records him dying Nov. 9, 1924, age 49, of "Organic disease of heart (Alcoholism)." He was buried in Mount Benedict Cemetery, West Roxbury, MA, but about 1942 his remains were moved to St. Patricks Cemetery in Natick, about nine miles (14 km) west. There he is buried with his wife and other family members.
In 1926 Dan Sullivan, Jr., son of the Boston fiddler mentioned above, started Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band, a long-lived and successful outfit with many radio appearances and recordings to its credit. Michael Hanafin played fiddle in this band for many years.
Four recordings by William Hanafin, originally cylinder records, survive. He plays fiddle in a fine fluid style. They are not commercial recordings, and are held by the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin, in the Busby-Carney Collection.
Descendants of William Hanafin credit him with composing the well known session tune "The Bird in the Tree," known also as "Bird in the Bush" and "Billy Hanafin's," after a walk in Boston's Public Garden. There was some disappointment that "[Francis] O'Neill and others did not properly attribute the tune to Billy." In the Chiff and Fipple topic mentioned above Mary Hanafin Doonan, a descendant of Michael Hanafin, asserts that "The day after Billy passed, O'Neil had a few men come and take several boxes of his written music/notes. With such greif, Mary A, [h]is wife, let them take what they wanted. Luckily, up in the attic there were others that were left to carry on into family memories."
Hanafin owned a Taylor set which O'Neill says he acquired from John Harney, the Boston piper mentioned earlier. The set passed to Eileen, William's youngest daughter. Eileen eventually gave the pipes to Christy O'Leary after meeting him by chance on an airplane. O'Leary is a well-known piper, a former member of the bands Boys of the Lough and De Dannan.
A monument to the Hanafin Brothers was erected in Milltown, Co. Kerry, about 2003. A bas-relief image of the brothers, after their photograph in Irish Minstrels and Musicians, is on the side of the monument.
Selected References
Carey, Michael "Tribute to William Hanafin" [Pat Touhey quote] Irish World Dec. 13, 1924. p. 11 column 3
Microfilm at New York Public Library
"Danced to the Music of the Irish Bagpipes. Third Annual Concert and Ball of Division 52, A. O. H." Boston [MA] Globe Dec. 3, 1901 p. 2 column 3
Newspaperarchive.com
Davitt Council, A. A. R. I. R., to Hold Annual Reunion Boston [MA] Globe Feb. 11, 1924 p. 2A column 4
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Doonan, Mary Hanafin Posts to "Hanafin brothers monument in Milltown !!," a topic on Chiff and Fipple Uilleann Pipe Forum, Feb. 26, 2012, and other dates.
http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38928&start=0
Groff, Paul Post to "Hanafin brothers monument in Milltown !!," a topic on Chiff and Fipple Uilleann Pipe Forum, Feb. 26, 2012
http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38928&start=0
Hanafin, William "Wm. F. Hanniffin." [obituary] Irish World Nov. 29, 1924 p. 7 column 7
Microfilm at New York Public Library
"The Hanafin Monument" From "Statues - Hither & Thither" Website, accessed Jan. 2018
http://vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=ST&record=ie225
"Irish Pipers' Club [regular meeting]" Boston [MA] Globe June 12, 1916 p. 9 column 7
Access Newspaper Archive
"Irish Pipers' Club to Appear at First Ball With Band" Boston [MA] Globe Feb. 19, 1924 p. 8 column 4
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Kavana, Ron "I'm Leaving Tipperary: Classic Irish Traditional Music Recorded In America In The 20s & 30s" Globestyle Irish copyright Topic Records Ltd. 1994 CDORBD 082. Compact Disc.
"Kerry Men Preparing for a Record Breaker." NY Irish American Advocate Jan. 14, 1905 p. 1 column 7
Microfilm from New York State Library, Albany
O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 326-9
"Steampacket" Post to "Hanafin brothers monument in Milltown !!," a topic on Chiff and Fipple Uilleann Pipe Forum, Feb. 21, 2012
http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38928&start=0
Nick Whitmer
July 2018 corrections, additions Nov. 2018