Tarlach Mac Suibhne
performer
b. Glenfin, County Donegal, Ireland circa 1821?
d. Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland July 13, 1916
From O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 p. 291
Tarlach Mac Suibhne, the "Piper of Donegal," spent most of his life in Ireland, but came to the United States in 1893 for about six months to perform at the Chicago World's Fair. At least ten Irish pipers played, or claimed to have played, at the Fair but Mac Suibhne was the one who got the most press coverage. He was a character, and projected a personality reserved, mysterious and aristocratic; great fodder for reporters and writers. Francis O'Neill devotes five pages to Mac Suibhne in Irish Minstrels and Musicians, a book in which most pipers are allotted one page or less.
In the 1890s the most common form of his name was probably Charles MacSweeney, but there were several variations: Toirdhealach Mac Suibhne, Tirloch McSweeney, Charley McSwiney, etc.
Mac Suibhne came from a musical family. His father and grandfather were pipers and his brothers fiddle players. Tarlach developed a good reputation as piper and was known as "An Piobaire Mor," The Great Piper. He was a direct descendant of "the dispossessed Mac Suibhne na dTuath (Doe Castle) Clan Chieftains," which supposedly accounted for behavior described as dignified and prideful. At the time of the Fair he claimed to be 50 years old, according to the ship passenger list for the journey from Londonderry to Halifax. Other sources suggest he was older but his birth year is uncertain.
Caoimhín Mac Aoidh, writing in The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, nicely sums up one aspect of his appeal:
- Steeped in the oral folklore tradition, he actively promoted fantastic stories about himself based on long established folklore motifs. These included the notion that he had learned his music from the king of the local fairy rath, as well as being bestowed with a secret book of tunes written by the fairies, which it transpired was his copy of O'Farrell's Collection of National Irish Music for the Union Pipes (1804).
More information and stories about his life can be found in other sources (see, for example, Breathnach, Curtis and O'Neill in the Selected References, below). Here I focus on his time in Chicago.
The Chicago World's Fair was an enormous undertaking. It was open to the public May 1 - October 30, 1893 and had more than 26 million attendees. Visitors paid admission to a closed-in area to see the big exhibition buildings and country and state pavilions. Nearby was an amusement area, the Midway Plaisance, a mile long street with many attractions of varying quality, from educational to fake. There was no charge to walk the Midway, but most attractions charged admission to go inside.
Because Ireland was not an independent country at this time, it was not eligible to build a pavilion on the main fairgrounds. But two groups were permitted to organize "Irish Village" attractions on the Midway Plaisance. The goals of both were similar: to exhibit the glories of Irish art, culture and craft. One was sponsored by the Countess of Aberdeen, and featured a replica of Blarney Castle. The other was organized by Mrs. Ernest Hart, with its Donegal Castle replica. Each required twenty five cents admission.
Both villages hired craftspeople, dancers and musicians from Ireland to work at the Fair. Mac Suibhne was hired to play at Mrs. Hart's Donegal Castle. Mac Suibhne arrived in Chicago April 27 with Mrs. Hart and seven other workers including a knitter, wood-carver, two lacemakers.
Some accounts describe Mac Suibhne as sitting outside the entrance to the Village, playing pipes and encouraging passers-by to enter. He is also described as playing inside the Village "at the foot of the great market cross of Kilkenny, which stands in the center of the courtyard." It seems likely that he played for dancers, although I have seen no solid evidence that he did so. Two newspaper articles describe him dancing in the courtyard in an afternoon program; one implies he danced to the piping of a "young man."
At least one other piper played at the Donegal Castle village. Pat Touhey, an Irish-American, had also been hired. He later became the most successful of the vaudeville pipers, and is still remembered as a top-notch piper thanks to his early recordings. At the time of the Chicago Fair he was about 28 years old and had been in show business at least seven years. Touhey appears to have been hired principally to play for dancers in entertainments held in the courtyard and in a performance room in the Castle.
Performance conditions cannot have been the best, especially at the Village entrance. The press of people, the cries of barkers touting the virtues of nearby attractions. Less frequently the sound of trains from a nearby elevated railroad, and "the roar of the lions from Hagenbeck's [animal show] over the way...."
For most of its run the Fair was closed Sunday. Francis O'Neill wrote that from Saturday evening to Monday morning Mac Suibhne "enjoyed the hospitality" of Police Sergeant James Early, himself a piper and a mainstay of the Irish music circle in Chicago. At Early's home O'Neill and other musicians had the opportunity to hear Mac Suibhne "at his best" and observe him in a social setting - "where he was more communicative and almost cordial."
Most assessments of Mac Suibhne's playing are entwined with his appearance and bearing. Reactions range from incomprehension to amused respect. Here are two examples:
"Last but not least there is an old Irish piper, who plays enthusiastically on an ancient set of Irish bag-pipes. This music is dangerously like that of a Chinese orchestra and one must have a highly educated ear to enjoy it."
Mac Suibhne "carried with him the pipes whose lively skirl will set the feet of visitors to tingling. McSweeney possesses a genial but impressive manner and is full of comical dignity. While playing on his beloved pipes his eyes close and his head sways to the rhythm of the music, the left foot tapping a ceaseless cadence."
Chicago piper John Ennis, in a letter to the Chicago Citizen, acknowledged that Mac Suibhne "is a perfect type of the old Irish piper. He is a fine musician and plays some grand old Irish pieces that are now almost obsolete." O'Neill wrote "wonderfully even and correct was his rendition of Irish airs," but O'Neill perceived the coldness of his nature as somehow expressed in his music. "Faultless in time as the tones of a hand organ, the spirit of the Irish tune seemed lacking...."
Ennis and O'Neill could not help but compare the two Donegal Village pipers, Mac Suibhne and Touhey. For them it was a contrast between old and new. The new was more skilled, showed more promise.
Despite this, a story emerged that Mac Suibhne bested Touhey and other pipers at the Fair in an open contest to determine the World Champion Piper. To this point I have seen no evidence that such a contest took place. The supposed contest is mentioned in an obituary for Mac Suibhne in the Derry, Northern Ireland Derry People and Donegal News newspaper. The obituary also says that after the Fair Mac Suibhne "visited and performed in all the principal cities in the United States...." There is no evidence for this and some against, and as far as is known he returned to Ireland probably in November 1893.
Tarlach Mac Suibhne died at his home in Donegal in 1916, age perhaps in his late 80s. Several newspapers in the United States published death notices or obituaries.
Selected References
Breathnach, Seosamh "Tarlach Mac Suibhne" An Píobaire vol. 1 no. 4 Marta 1970 p. 6
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1010&mediaId=25881
Curtis, Edmund "The Old Piper of Gweedore" Manchester Guardian p. 14, 9 Feb. 1910. Reprinted in An Píobaire vol. 3 no. 22 April 1995 pp. 21-4
http://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1012&mediaId=25968
Dean, Teresa "White City Chips." [Mac Suibhne dances] Chicago IL Daily Inter Ocean Aug. 18, 1893 p. 7 column 4
19th Century US Newspapers
Ennis, John [letter to editor] Chicago Citizen Oct. 31, 1893, quoted in The Piping of Patsy Touhey by Pat Mitchell and Jackie Small, Dublin Na Píobairí Uilleann 1986 pp. 3-4
"From Inisshinny." [arrival in Chicago] Chicago IL Daily Inter Ocean April 28, 1893 p. 7 column 2
19th Century US Newspapers
"Ireland at Chicago. ... Donegal Castle ... The Noble Philanthropy of Mrs. Ernest Hart." Brockway Centre MI Weekly Expositor June 9, 1893 p. 7 column 4
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn2006060001/1893-06-09/ed-1/seq-7/
"Irish Characters Arrive." [full of comical dignity] Chicago [IL] Daily Tribune May 4, 1893 p. 2
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
"Irish Village and Donegal Castle." [Mac Suibhne dances, lions roar] Chicago IL Inter Ocean July 9, 1893 p. 6 column 4
GenealogyBank.com
Mac Aoidh, Caoimhín "Mac Suibhne, Tarlach" The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland University College Dublin Press 2013 vol. 2 pp. 611-12
O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 289-95
Representative Irish Piper. Tirloch McSweeney's History. [Biographical article, with photo of the piper.]
'At the close of the Exhibition he was offered a large salary to remain in America, but refused it, and when asked his reason he simply floored his interrogator by the query, "Whether do you think I would like to die in the Land of Saints or the Land of Snakes?" '
Dublin, Ireland Weekly Irish Times April 24, 1909 p. 4 column 4
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Turlough MacSweeney. Death of the Celebrated Donegal Piper. [born 1821; bested all pipers in a contest at the Chicago World's Fair; travelled in US after the Fair] Derry [Northern Ireland] People and Donegal News June 24, 1916 p. 1 column 2
"Turlough M'Sweeney. Donegal's Most Famous Player Will Play No More." [copies obituary in the Derry [Northern Ireland] People and Donegal News with literary additions] NY Advocate July 22, 1916 p. 7 column 4
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1916-1918 - 0273.pdf
"The World's Fair. Two Irish Villages." [like a Chinese orchestra] Buffalo [NY] Express June 25, 1893 p. 4 column 1
Newspaper Buffalo NY Morning Express 1893 - 2006.pdf
Nick Whitmer
July 2018