Michael O'Connell

player, dancer

b. West Cork, Ireland circa 1800
d. after 1881

In Irish Minstrels and Musicians, Francis O'Neill tells a story about Michael Connell, a piper known as "Caunheen" who came from Ireland for a "tour of America" in the middle of the nineteenth century. Connell accepted a challenge to play against a local celebrity. Bets were made on the outcome. A large crowd supported the hometown piper.

They cheered lustily when his American competitor repeated every tune that the greenhorn piper from Ireland rattled off. The latter was thinking about giving up, when some faithful 'towny' from Ballyvourney yelled from the gallery: "Wisha 'Caunheen' a gradh geal, cadh mar geall an Ceoil Sidhe?" ["Caunheen my friend, what about the Fairy Music?"] The voice from home, giving fresh courage and inspiration to the man from Macroom, he put his whole soul into the execution of the enchanted air, and as the Yankee champion could not follow him into the realms of fairy music, our hero won the wager.

The crowd became angry at the stranger's victory, and Connell discreetly left through a side door. O'Neill writes that what became of Connell was unknown, except that he returned to Ireland and told the story there. O'Neill heard the story, perhaps during a visit to Ireland in 1906, from John Wayland, founder of the Cork Pipers' Club.

The scene changes: a piper named Michael O'Connell enjoyed some press coverage in Boston, Massachusetts, 1881-82. The initial article about him, April 1881, was unusually respectful and detailed:

An Irish Bard in Boston.
Brief Sketch of Michael O'Connell, a Remarkable Musician.
'It will be interesting information, to lovers of music in general, and to the Irish element in particular, to learn that there exists at the present day in this city a professional Irish musician, in the person of Michael O'Connell, an octogenarian, who performs on the bag-pipes. This individual, who has seen fourscore summers, is bright and lively for his age, possessed of all his faculties, and a living repository of Irish music. He is able to play all the popular "Irish airs" and their variations. Moore's melodies are only a small fraction, compared to the store of Irish music of which he is possessed, and having composed and written song and music in his day he is undoubtedly entitled to the appellation of bard, in whom are blended the poet and the musician. He is of a family which produced men of literary attainments and poetic talents; for instance, John O'Connell of Tuath-na-Droman, in West Cork (of which district our bard is a native).... O'Connell first came to America about thirty-five years ago, having been sent for to play for a wager ($400) and the championship of America against another who also performed on the bagpipes. He vanquished his opponent, being far superior in the sweetness and correctness of his music, and could play five old Irish airs to the former's one. He has often since crossed the Atlantic, and is now residing in East Boston, in obscurity, in the midst of the vast Irish population-a man whose equal, perhaps, cannot be found today among the Irish race all over the world, and with whose demise many a valuable Irish air will die forever. Being also a professional dancing master, he, in the prime of life, taught dancing to and played music for the gentry of Desmond within a circuit of thirty miles of where he lived. There was handed down to him from former generations a valuable collection of the national airs of the country with which he diligently stocked his "bags." These are a very entertaining piece of property for those who have an ear for music. This item regarding this aged disciple of Euterpe and Terpsichore is written in hopes that the Irish people of Boston will not let him pass away unnoticed, and that some efforts may be made to secure the rare old Irish airs, many of which he undoubtedly is the only living custodian.'

A letter to the editor in May by "A MUSICIAN" praises O'Connell as a musician and calls him "a second Carolan."

A benefit for O'Connell was held in Spelman Hall, Boston, May 24 of that year. It was well attended. An account of the event gave a list of tunes he played: "The Culion," "Au Mardirin Ruadh; or, the Fox Chase," "John O'Dwyer of the Glen," "The harp that once thro' Tara's hall," "Parnell's March," "Alexander McDonnell's March," The Old Man Rocking the Cradle" and "Brian Borumha's March."

Last known mention of Michael O'Connell was as "referee" of an Irish dancing contest in Boston, March, 1882.

Are O'Neill's Michael Connell and Boston's Michael O'Connell the same person? Perhaps. Locations in Ireland are consistent. Ballyvourney and Macroom, mentioned by O'Neill as home ground for Connell, are in West Cork, and the "Brief Sketch" of O'Connell mentions his family being from West Cork. O'Connell is said also to have had a dance-teaching circuit in the Kingdom of Desmond, in what is now Cork and Kerry.

In any case, the attention paid to O'Connell in the Boston papers was very unusual, if brief. It rivaled coverage given to pipers John Egan and Luke McEvoy in the later part of the nineteenth century.

Thanks to Daniel T. Neely for bringing articles about Michael O'Connell to my attention and to Patrick Kenny for translating the Irish.

Selected References

"The Irish Bard." [letter to editor] Boston [MA] Daily Globe May 7, 1881 p. 6
Newspaperarchive.com

"An Irish Bard in Boston." Boston [MA] Daily Globe April 18, 1881 p. 2
Newspaperarchive.com

"A Novel Contest." [referees dance contest] Boston [MA] Post March 6, 1882 p. 4
Newspaperarchive.com

O'Neill, Francis Irish Folk Music [O'Neill in Ireland] Chicago 1910 pp. 226-27

O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 270-71

Nick Whitmer
Sep. 2018