Edward J.Mullaney uilleann

Lives of the Pipers Home

Edward J. Mullaney

performer; commercial recordings exist

b. Chicago, Illinois Nov. 23, 1884
d. Chicago, Illinois June 1971


Chicago IL Auburn Parker March 16, 1938 p. 1 column 3
Newspaperarchive.com


Edward J. Mullaney, often known as Eddie, was a well-known Irish piper in Chicago for many years. He was probably best known for numerous radio broadcasts from 1931 at least through 1948. He recorded pipes and fiddle duets with Patrick Stack in Chicago in 1926.

Mullaney was the son of Patrick and Anna Coleman Mullaney, both born in Chicago. Their parents came from Sligo and Mayo, respectively. Edward was born in Chicago. The family removed to Ireland and Mullaney spent his childhood there. According to the picture caption, above, "he learned to play the pipes when a child in Ireland."

Mullaney returned to Chicago, age 20, in 1904. He married Margaret Gallagher, a native of Ireland, in Chicago in 1908. According to the 1920 US Census, Margaret immigrated to the US in 1907. She was naturalized in 1908. A ship passenger list, years later, says her naturalization was "Derivative, Through marriage."

There are few newspaper references to musical performances by Mullaney before the 1930s. The earliest is from 1915, when he plays for Prof. John McNamara's dancing class in an exhibition at a Hibernian Picnic in Janesville, Wisconsin. He is on a list of "living performers on the union pipes" compiled by Francis O'Neill in 1917. Mullaney is mentioned as a concert performer in 1922 in O'Neill's book Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody.

With violinist Patrick Stack, Mullaney recorded six tracks, later released as 78rpm records, at the Webster Hotel, Chicago on September 13, 1926. Most have been re-released on CDs or are available on the internet. Unusual in that there is no backing instrument - pipes and fiddle only. The playing is very good: sparse, vertical (perhaps described as jerky if it is not to one's taste).

The "Irish Hour" radio show began in 1929 (Piggott says 1930) on Chicago station WCFL. At first Tom Ennis was the regular piper. When Ennis died in 1931 Eddie Mullaney was asked to take his place. He was a regular on the show at least to 1948. The Irish Hour was a weekly show and in 1939 was alleged to be "acclaimed as one of the most popular radio programs in the United States and Canada." The cast of the radio program worked up a stage show and performed at concerts and festivals in Chicago.

In the 1930s Mullaney was playing on the radio and a woman called the station. She had "what she thought was a set of Irish pipes in her attic." He acquired the set, which turned out to have been made by the Taylor brothers of Philadelphia for John K. Beatty of Chicago, perhaps circa 1880. It is among the heaviest and most elaborate sets known to have been made by the Taylors. Mullaney played the set for many years, and finally passed it along to his nephew Joe Shannon of Chicago in 1967.

The last found mention of a public performance by Mullaney is from August 1948 at a Lady Day in Harvest Celebration in Chicago.

Edward and Margaret lived at 7534 Peoria Street Chicago for many years. In August 1968 there was an article in the Chicago Tribune about their 60th wedding anniversary party. His obituary, 1971, mentions four children, 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. For most of his life Mullaney was employed as a Stationary Engineer, someone who manages or maintains power and power generating equipment. In the 1940s he worked at the General Mills Plant in southeast Chicago, which produced Wheaties, Cheerios and other breakfast cereals.

Mullaney died in June 1971 and was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery & Mausoleum, Alsip, Cook County, Illinois.


Selected References

"60 Years of Marriage" [with photo of the Mullaneys] Chicago [IL] Tribune Aug. 4, 1968 Section 10 p. 17 column 1
Proquest Historical Newspapers

"Annual Picnic" [earliest known engagement] Janesville [WI] Daily Gazette July 12, 1915 p. 5 column 1
Newspaperarchive.com

"Death Notices Mullaney" Chicago [IL] Tribune June 11, 1971 Section 3 p. 15 column 1
Proquest Historical Newspapers

"Irish Day Picnic Expected to Draw 12,000 on Sunday" [last known engagement] Chicago IL Southeast Economist Aug. 12, 1948 p. 7 column 5
Access Newspaper Archive

"Irish Hour [radio show] will Begin 10th Year Sunday Evening" Chicago IL Auburn Parker July 5, 1939 p. 7 column 2
Newspaperarchive.com

McCullough, Lawrence E. Irish Music in Chicago: an ethnomusicological study [Mullaney on the radio, Beatty set] PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1978 pp. 32, 136

O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians [Beatty set] Chicago 1913 pp. 281-82, 479

O'Neill, Francis "Names and addresses of living performers on the union pipes sent by Francis O'Neill in Chicago to Séamus Ó Casaide in Dublin, letters of June-August 1917." From the National Library of Ireland, Séamus Ó Casaide Collection, Ms. 8116. Transcribed by Michael Kelly.

O'Neill, Francis Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody 2nd ed. 1924? p. 133

Piggott, Richie Cry of a People Gone: Irish Musicians in Chicago 1920-2020 [parents born in Chicago; year Edward returned to Chicago] St. Charles, IL Cnocanglas Productions LLC 2022 p. 105

Rietmann, Kevin L. Post to Chiff and Fipple internet forum [acquires Beatty set of pipes] March 10, 2006
http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37773

Sellers, Rod and Dominic A. Pacyga Chicago's Southeast Side [General Mills Plant] Arcadia Publishing 1998 p. 64

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. 2826

"West Side's Proud Irish Are Ready to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day Tuesday" [with photo of Mullaney] Chicago [IL] Sunday Tribune March 15, 1942 Part 3 p. 1 column 6
ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Nick Whitmer
August 2018, additions Nov. 2022