Timothy McCarthy
player, performer
Active 1888-1901
San Francisco [CA] Call March 14, 1898 p. 10 column 3
Library of Congress Chronicling America
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1898-03-14/ed-1/seq-10/
Drawing caption "Prof. Mc Carty & his bagpipes."
Timothy McCarthy was based in San Francisco and, if newspaper references are any guide, was the only Irish piper performing publicly in the "Pacific States," California, Oregon and Washington, in the 1890s.
McCarthy is first mentioned in a letter sent back east to Boston by the Secretary of the Gaelic School, San Francisco, describing a "reunion" of that organization December 9, 1888. The meeting featured speeches and music, and McCarthy, "who had just got a set of the latest improved union bagpipes made by the Taylor brothers of Philadelphia," played several tunes with great success. Among them "The Top of the Cork Road, The Groves of Blarney, The Rakes of Mallow, and The Rocky Road to Dublin."
Patrick J. Murphy, the correspondent, described McCarthy as the best piper he had ever heard, and "a pupil of the late O'Shanahan, the far-famed Munster piper who was his step-father." This may be the piper Shannahan, mentioned by Francis O'Neill in Irish Minstrels and Musicians as from Kilrush, County Clare and active as late as the 1860s. A poem in the New York Irish-American, 1873, says O'Shanahan was a native of County Limerick. Perhaps McCarthy was born and raised in this part of Ireland.
From 1888 to 1901 McCarthy's name appears often in San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, playing at Irish and sometimes Scottish events. He played music for dancing. Often he played at annual events for several years running, as with the annual picnic and reunion of the Rebel Cork Benevolent Society, almost every year from 1890 through 1897. Similarly, he played for Irish jig and reel dancing contests at the annual games of the Scottish Thistle Club, most years from 1891 through 1899.
Over 10,000 people attended the 1892 Scottish Thistle Club games. "'The Irish were given the [dance] platform for an hour, and men and women gigged it merrily for championships to Professor McCarthy's Irish bagpipes. When his bench broke beneath his energy they shouted to him to 'keep it up' on the floor-and he did."
There are references to performances in theatrical productions and in vaudeville, 1889-92. In 1892 McCarthy sued the manager of the Wigwam Theater, San Francisco, for cutting short his three week performance contract without notice. He was earning $20 per week (equal to about $525 in 2015). The manager said he did not please. McCarthy argued that theater programs and posters touted his success, and that he got two or three encores every night. McCarthy won his case.
By 1895 he was performing occasionally with fiddle player William McMahon, who is mentioned and pictured in Irish Minstrels and Musicians. Nothing is known of McCarthy after 1901 but McMahon continued to perform in San Francisco, and later played regularly with piper John J. Cummings.
An elaborate Irish Fair ran for two weeks in Portland, Oregon, January-February 1899. The event was heavily and imaginatively advertised.
- There is no mistake about the statement that there will be a genuine Irish bagpiper at the Irish fair. Manager Buckley received a letter from the renowned Timothy McCarthy, of Minna street, San Francisco, that he would come in all of the glory of his corduroy knee breeches, cutaway black coat, pumps and silver buckles, and his immaculate linen and green necktie. He will bring his silver-mounted pipes, presented to him by the Countess of Lorne, and he will merrily pipe the lays of Erin while the colleens will lilt, and the gossoons will dance about the hearth, and everyone that visits the old Irish dancing school will see the rarest sights of the times. Know all ye that, to the knowledge of Manager Buckley, there is but one genuine Irish piper on the Pacific coast, and his services are much in demand in all of California.
The "Countess of Lorne" may well have been Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (1848-1939). She was a daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of John, Marquess of Lorne, who served as Governor General of Canada 1878-83.
Another Irish Fair puff-piece claims that McCarthy was a big success at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, playing for dancer Patsey Brannigan at the Irish Village. It is not impossible, but there is no evidence to support this. Further, McCarthy's known appearances in California in 1893 make the timing of Chicago engagements difficult and unlikely.
The last known McCarthy engagement is for the 11th annual celebration of the Tyrone, Fermanagh and Donegal Benevolent Society, Aug. 25, 1901. Nothing is known of him after this date.
In 1987 Denis Brooks, then of Seattle, Washington, announced sale of an old set, "Egan Chanter - Coyne Body. ... Played by a piper named McCarthy or Fitzgerald in San Francisco during the last century. Supposedly died while playing on a boardwalk in San Francisco, during the 1800's." This may be so, but so far there is no supporting evidence for this information, which was apparently passed along with the set.
Regarding the reference, above, to the "renowned Timothy McCarthy, of Minna street," the US Census, 1900, has Timothy McCarthy, a lodger at 412 Minna Street, San Francisco, born Ireland 1835, immigrated to the US in 1880. No occupation listed. Perhaps...
Selected References
"Annual Picnic and Games." [last known engagement] San Francisco [CA] Call Aug. 18, 1901 p. 22 column 5
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19010818.2.103
"For Sale Egan Chanter - Coyne Body" The Pipers' Review vol. 7 no. 2 Sep. 1987 p. 11
http://https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1036&mediaId=26339
"Five Days Only to see The Irish Fair and International Industrial Exposition at the Exposition Building" [claim of playing at the Chicago World's Fair] Portland OR Morning Oregonian Jan. 31, 1899 p. 9 column 5
GenealogyBank.com
"Forty Years Ago. Dedicated to Hon. Michael Connelly, New York." [a poem mentioning O'Shanahan] NY Irish-American June 7, 1873 p. 3 column 3
GenealogyBank.com
"Genuine Irish Bagpiper" Portland OR Sunday Oregonian Dec. 11, 1898 p. 10 column 3
GenealogyBank.com
"Manager Meyer Must Pay." San Francisco CA Morning Call July 30, 1892 p. 7 column 7
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94052989/1892-07-30/ed-1/seq-7/
Murphy, Patrick J. "The Gaels in the Golden West" From the Irish Echo, Boston, January 1889. Reprinted in The Pipers' Review vol. 17 no. 4 Fall 1998 pp. 12-13
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1036&mediaId=26371
O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 343, 416, 481
"Revel of the Cork Rebels." [earliest mention of William McMahon] San Francisco [CA] Chronicle Aug. 5, 1895 p. 3 column 5
Newspapers.com
Scottish Thistle Club [10th annual games] San Francisco [CA] Chronicle July 5, 1892 p. 3 column 5
Newspapers.com
Nick Whitmer
August 2018