Patrick "Patsy" Touhey uilleann

Lives of the Pipers Home

Patrick "Patsy" Touhey

performer; commercial and private recordings exist

b. Cahertinna, County Galway, Ireland Feb. 26, 1865
d. The Bronx, New York City Jan. 10, 1923


Pat Touhey reads a letter. Undated, perhaps circa 1910. From Tom Busby Collection of photographs, Na Píobairí Uilleann, Dublin, Ireland.


Pat Touhey was the most successful of the vaudeville pipers. He was in show business for at least 36 years and thought of himself as a comedian and actor. Touhey was also a virtuoso on the Irish pipes and well-regarded as a piper in his day. These accomplishments might today be forgotten - or nearly so - except that influential recordings of his playing survive. His part in the history of the instrument is secure and his influence on piping is still felt.

His full name was Patrick Joseph Touhey. Touhey was most often referred to as "Pat," sometimes "Patrick," in contemporary newspaper accounts. Today most people are familiar with him as "Patsy," an informal version of his name seldom seen in print during his lifetime. Music collector Francis O'Neill consistently called him Patsy in his books and correspondence. Touhey also introduces himself - or is introduced by others - on his cylinder recordings as "Patsy."

Thanks to the efforts of Barry O'Neill, John Tuohy and Michael Kelly, a bit more is known about Touhey's family in Ireland and his early years in the United States.

At the time Touhey was born most official records recorded the name as "O'Toole." He was born Patrick Joseph O'Toole, son of James O'Toole, a musician, and Mary Curley O'Toole. He had at least five brothers and sisters. Birthplace was north-west of the town of Loughrea, County Galway. His father was reputedly employed as piper by local landlord Lord Dunsandle. Touhey's paternal grandfather Michael (whose surname appears as Tuohy) and two uncles were pipers.

The family emigrated to the Boston area, probably in 1868. Pat Touhey's father died of pneumonia in 1875. The 1880 US Census shows Patrick O'Toole, 15 years old, living in South Boston with his mother Mary and sister Bridget. His occupation is "Printer." An obituary by Michael Carey says that at age 18 Touhey was working "... in a lumber yard in Brooklyn [New York]...." Between the 1880 Census and his first newspaper mention as a musician in 1885 he begins to use "Touhey" as the form of his name.

In an interview from 1901, Touhey says he "began learning" pipes from William Taylor and John Egan "when I was eleven years old, and considered myself a master of the instrument at twenty-one." This is hard to believe, given that at age eleven Touhey lived in Boston, Taylor in Philadelphia and Egan in New York City. Perhaps the interviewer misunderstood what Touhey said, or perhaps Touhey was exaggerating.

Michael Carey wrote that Touhey began playing pipes under the instruction of Bartley Murphy, a former student of his father. "The youth practiced assiduously for a few years and then discontinued his playing for a long period until he had reached the age of 18." Once in New York he saw piper John Egan playing in a music hall on the Bowery and his interest in pipes was rekindled.

Egan and Touhey hit it off and Egan invited Touhey to tour with him as part of "Harrigan's Double Hibernian Co., Irish and American Tourists." This was a hibernicon, a panorama show with actors, singers, dancers and musicians, designed to appeal to Irish-American audiences. It performed at cities and towns in the northeastern United States and Egan and Touhey joined it for the Sep. 1885-May 1886 season. Touhey was 20 years old, and this was his introduction to the theatrical life. [see "Pat Touhey's Earliest Known Tour" for more information].

By April 1887 Touhey was playing pipes and acting in a play, "Inshavogue; or, The Patriots of '98" starring Benjamin Maginley.

Between 1885 and 1905 Touhey played in several touring theatre productions including "The Ivy Leaf," "The Fairy's Well," "The Rambler From Clare," the comic opera "Shamus O'Brien" and "Shandon Bells." He may have had speaking parts in some of these plays, but in every play there was a dance scene, and he supplied the music.

During the first half of his career - 1885-1905 - there are more references to Touhey as an actor and piper in plays and theatre productions than as a vaudeville performer or even as a solo piper. About halfway through this period he begins to have vaudeville engagements.

During the winter of 1888-89 he first came to the attention of Captain Francis O'Neill and the Chicago community of Irish musicians, probably when touring as a member of "The Ivy Leaf" troupe. O'Neill recalled that Touhey came to Police Headquarters and introduced himself. Piper William Taylor of Philadelphia had advised Touhey to call on O'Neill "with a view of meeting Bernard Delaney."

O'Neill, who could be quite critical of the musicians he met, had nothing but praise for Touhey. Years later O'Neill wrote:

In the following years O'Neill also collected tunes from Touhey. For example, Touhey was a named source for at least six tunes in O'Neill's still influential collection O'Neill's Music of Ireland (Chicago 1903) including "The Dark Woman of the Glen (no. 6), "The Jolly Tinker" (no. 1535) and a version of "The Garden of Daisies" (no. 1798).

In the summer of 1893 - exact dates uncertain - Touhey played at the Chicago World's Fair. While O'Neill describes Touhey's experience there as a great success, two other pipers got the lion's share of press coverage. Touhey was playing at the Donegal Irish Village with Tarlach Mac Suibhne (circa 1829-1916) an exotic character from Donegal who had great attraction to reporters and writers. The other was James Touhey (1870-1923), perhaps a distant relation, who was playing at a second Irish Village, which sported a replica of Blarney Castle. James Touhey performed with dancer Patsy Brannigan and they were a big hit and well-covered in the press. Later commentators have sometimes confused the two Touheys. I have seen only two contemporary references to Pat Touhey at the Chicago fair.

By 1896 the team of "Touhey and Finley, Irish pipers and dancers" was playing at vaudeville theaters. This is the earliest mention of Pat Touhey in vaudeville. In that year vaudeville engagements for Touhey become frequent, most of them with a partner, usually a dancer. Among the partner acts: "Finley and Touhey," 1896-97; "Touhey and Mack," many with "Rice and Barton's Extravaganza Co.," 1898-1900; "Touhey and Lacy," 1900-03. Touhey and Lacy made their entrance onstage in an automobile, "a trick automobile that blows up very successfully." They closed the act with bagpipe playing and dancing.

He played at the annual Feis Ceoil agus Seanachas concerts in New York City in 1901, 1903 and 1904. These prestigious concerts were sponsored by the Gaelic Society and were widely covered in newspapers. In this serious and cultivated context he "supplied the feature of the programme," in 1901. He was well received at the 1903 concert at Carnegie Hall and played 'an "Ancient Clan March" from the Petrie Collection [and] "The Blackberry Blossom" and "Crabs in a Skillet" from the Joyce collection.'

Touhey was an early adapter of recording technology and one of the earliest pipers to be recorded. He bought an Edison phonograph - one that played and recorded cylinder records - and recorded himself. He intended to sell the recordings to the public. Earliest mention of this project is an ad in the Chicago Citizen newspaper May 11, 1901:


Chicago Citizen May 11, 1901 p. 5 column 4
Microfilm from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield IL.

This ad apeared five times. An article in the Irish World newspaper, New York City, described Touhey's intentions May 18, 1901. Touhey ran ads like this in the Irish World for almost two years:


NYC Irish World Feb. 8, 1902 p. 7
GenealogyBank.com

This plan required that Touhey make a separate recording for each order. He did not have the equipment to duplicate existing recordings. Ten dollars in 1902 is roughly equivalent to $290 in 2019. There is no solid evidence that Touhey actually sold any recordings but the duration of his advertising suggests that he made some sales. With a few possible exceptions, cylinder recordings of his playing that survive were made by Francis O'Neill, or by Touhey himself and given to O'Neill or passed on to Michael Carney after Touhey's death. The "catalogue of 150 Irish airs, reels, jigs, etc." would be a fine thing to see, but to this point no copy has turned up.

In the summer of 1904 he performed solo at the St. Louis World's Fair. He played pipes, told jokes and sang. O'Neill writes that the manager of the Irish Village "... engaged 'Patsy' Touhey at the latter's own price, and it proved a capital stroke of business...." This engagement also involved him in a widely reported controversy about his appearing as a "stage-Irishman," to some a demeaning representation of the Irish. One result of this controversy was that afterwards Touhey seldom, if ever, played at events sponsored by the Gaelic League or other ardent nationalist organizations. [see "Trouble in the Irish Village" for more information]

Touhey appeared in his last play, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" in 1906. From then on it was all vaudeville. Of the scores of newspaper references after 1906, only five refer to non-vaudeville engagements: two dances, a boxing match and two concerts.

A few words about vaudeville. It was the first mass entertainment business. Its heyday was roughly from 1890 to 1925. It developed from circus, minstrel, burlesque and variety show traditions. Ideally vaudeville aimed to be "polite," genteel, with nothing objectionable for gentlemen, ladies, children. As the industry evolved it tended toward consolidation and powerful men bought up chains of theaters; Pastor's, Keith's, Proctor's, etc. At its peak, say 1910, vaudeville was showing in hundreds of theaters throughout the country, employing perhaps 12,000 people industry-wide.

There was a remarkable variety and diversity of vaudeville acts. Comedians, singers, dancers, acrobats, jugglers, animal acts, ventriloquists, bicyclists, Irish Hebrew German and Negro parodies, blackface & whiteface performers, female impersonators, sharpshooters, magicians, etc., etc. A given vaudeville show was potentially likely to have peculiar juxtapositions of these and other kinds of acts in succession.

Vaudeville performers had their own subculture, with much travel, their own slang, trade associations, publications. The life was competitive, uncertain and demanding, and not very lucrative for most. Most vaudeville performers were, in a way, independent contractors, who, through booking agents, hired themselves out to individual theaters or theatre chains. A typical vaudeville show might have 5 or 9 acts, repeated 2 to 4 (or more) times per day, Monday thru Saturday. Sunday was usually a travel day; on to the next engagement. The season generally ran from September through May; successful vaudevillians often took summer off, others took engagements at amusement parks, fairs, etc.

In 1906, the first notice of engagements of Touhey with his wife May. May was her stage name; in private life she was Mary Touhey, nee Gillen. Little is known about her. She was born about 1885, probably in Massachusetts. Pat and Mary were married about 1905. They had no children. She was a dancer. For the rest of his career, Touhey performed with May, either as what was known in the business as a two-act (the two alone), in a trio, or in partnership with Charles H. Burke and others as the Burke, Touhey Company. For the most part these engagements were in the northeastern part of the country, with occasional forays into the central states; Ohio or Indiana, for example. They occasionally ranged further afield, as will be seen.

On October 6, 1907, the first mention of "Burke and Touhey" as a vaudeville team. Charles H. Burke (1870-1940) was a comedian and dancer. He was probably born in England, emigrated to the US as a young child or teenager. By 1891 he was certainly in burlesque and vaudeville, and by 1892 in an act with his brother John and "Wise Mike," a trained donkey or mule. "The Burke Brothers" was a successful act for the next 10 years. Charles Burke wrote much of his own material, played Irish and Hebrew (Jewish) comedy parts. In 1904-06 he was performing with his wife Grace La Rue. They went through an acrimonious and well-publicized divorce in 1907 and "Wise Mike" died about the same time. Then began Burke's association with Touhey.

Burke wrote a "skit" entitled "The Birthday Party," which he and the Touheys performed for many years. The skit ran about 25 minutes, and is mostly a humorous conversation between two old friends, with Pat's piping and May's dancing worked in. A script of the skit still exists. Other skits they performed were "Casey's Visit", first mentioned in 1915, and "Going to the Wedding," 1919. By their descriptions, these skits are also conversations between old friends, much like "The Birthday Party."

Burke, Touhey and Company performed, on and off, for almost 14 years. Their first two years together may have been the most successful. They played several large cities, and had a heavily-reviewed engagement as headliners at Pastor's Theatre in New York City, January, 1908. The Company consisted of Pat and May Touhey and Charles Burke, and often Burke's wife Harriet Carter (1878-1967). Sometimes the troupe included a young man, whose role in the act is unclear.

The Burke and Touhey Company broke up and reformed at least twice between 1907 and 1922, and Pat and May performed as a two-act in the meantimes. In these years, whether as a two-act or in the Company, their schedule conformed to the vaudeville season: engagements beginning in September or October, running through May; summers off.

Burke and Touhey apparently split up between March 1912 and December 1915. For a portion of that time - April 1913 to February 1914 - the Touheys were joined by Tom Connelly and billed as "The Pat Toohey Trio." This spelling of the name is consistent. Connelly was Pat Touhey's nephew and born in 1892. In reviews he is variously described as a dancer, singer, and straight man. Piano playing, likely by Connelly, is mentioned as part of the act, in one case as accompanying the pipes. Connelly later enlisted in the army and in 1918 was killed in action in France in World War One.

Burke and Touhey reunited by December 1915. From November 1917 to May 1918 the company went on an epic western tour, mostly in theaters on the Pantages circuit. There were at least 26 engagements including theaters in Minneapolis; Butte, Montana; Vancouver, B.C.; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; Ogden, Utah; Denver; Kansas City; Houston; Waco, Texas.

The years 1917-20 were probably the busiest for Touhey. He averaged over 20 known engagements per year. In 1921 a sharp drop-off, with only four, and his last known engagement was with Burke in Brooklyn, NY, September 26, 1921.

Touhey recorded Irish pipe solos for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1919. Perhaps six sides were recorded; three were released as 78 records. "Drowsy Maggie" 1920, "Medley of Irish Reels" 1921 and "The Maid on the Green" in 1924, after Touhey's death. These records sold well, were widely heard, and extended Touhey's influence as a virtuoso piper.

In August, 1908, the Touheys moved from The Bronx, New York City, to a house overlooking the Connecticut River in rural East Haddam, Connecticut. They lived there until 1919, then moved to Freeport, NY and stayed there 1919-1922. Freeport, on Long Island, was at the time well known as a "show-folk colony." "Nearly every home in the colony was built with vaudeville money."

The Touheys had a strong and lasting friendship with another married couple who were vaudevillians. Fred and Anna Gordon Eckhoff were active in vaudeville from 1900 to 1924 as "Eckhoff and Gordon, The Musical Laugh Makers." Pat Touhey had met Fred Eckhoff by 1898, when they were both cast members of Rice & Barton's Big Gaiety Co. The Eckhoffs were living in Manhattan in 1905; they bought a house in East Haddam in March 1908. The Touheys bought their East Haddam house in August 1908. It was a three minute walk from one to the other. The Eckhoffs sold their East Haddam house in August 1918 and bought a house in Freeport, Long Island in March 1919. The Touheys also sold out and bought a house in Freeport in August 1919. Again, a three minute walk from one to the other. Fred and Anna Eckhoff were witnesses to Pat Touhey's will, signed at East Haddam June 17, 1915.

In May 1919, apparently during a period when Burke and Touhey had split up, Touhey ran a "Partner Wanted" ad in which he said "Contrary to reports, I am not sick. Have not been sick this season." But by 1920 Touhey was having physical problems. In a letter from October of that year Francis O'Neill wrote "Touhey is in declining health from diabetes and not what he was but you will never meet his superior." Touhey sold his house in Freeport in 1922 and he and Mary moved to an apartment in The Bronx, New York City. His last known engagement was at the "Tom Ennis Association Ball" on St. Patrick's Eve, March 16, 1922.

Touhey died at home on January 10, 1923, fifty seven years old. An obituary in Variety magazine said "He had been suffering from liver trouble for some time, but was able to be about. He was confined to his home but one day prior to his death." A death certificate says the chief cause of death was Diabetes and heart "insufficiency."

Patrick J. Touhey was buried in St. Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx. The inscription on the stone says "In memory of my beloved husband."

Mary Touhey moved to Lowell, Massachusetts after Pat's death. She lived with a cousin, Christopher Heffernan, at least to 1935. It is not known where or when she died.

Pat Touhey had a fine set of pipes made by the Taylor brothers of Philadelphia. After his death Mary sold them to Michael Carney of Brooklyn. From Carney they passed to Tom Busby, then to Seán McKiernan, who is the present custodian.


Note: this biography is an updated and reorganized version of an earlier article "The Shape of Pat Touhey's Career." This article, and more information about Touhey - far more than any sensible person would want to absorb - can be found at the Touhey Archive:
http://www.whitmerpipes.com/touhey_archive.html


Selected References

"Amusements. Empire-Rice and Barton." [stage automobile blows up] Indianapolis [IN] Journal Sep. 26, 1899 p. 3 column 1
Library of Congress Chronicling America
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1899-09-26/ed-1/seq-3/

Carey, Michael "The Passing of Patrick Touhey" [learns from Bartley Murphy; worked in lumberyard; sees Egan on the Bowery] Irish World Feb. 3, 1923 p. 6 column 5
From microfilm at New York Public Library
reprinted in An Píobaire vol. 1 no. 16/17, Aibrean 1974, p. 11
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1010&mediaId=25889

Ennis, John "The Irish Bagpipes." [letter to editor, only known contemporary reference to Pat Touhey at the Chicago World's fair] Chicago Citizen Oct. 21, 1893 p. 5 column 3
Microfilm from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.

"Gaelic Notes" [Touhey sells records of his piping] Irish World May 18, 1901 p. 8 column 6
Genealogybank.com

"Gaelic Society Concert." [what Touhey played at the 1903 concert] Brooklyn NY Daily Standard Union April 20, 1903 p. 4 column 4
Brooklyn NY Standard Union 1903 - 1444.pdf

"Gossip of the Town. Benjamin Maginley" [in the play "Inshavogue; or, The Patriots of '98"] New York Mirror April 16, 1887 p. 3 column 4
New York NY Dramatic Mirror 1886 Dec-Dec 1888 Grayscale - 0193.pdf

"Grand Opera House" [Finley and Touhey review] Boston [MA] Post April 3, 1896 p. 6 column 5
Newspaperarchive.com

Granshaw Michelle The Hibernicon and Visions of Returning Home: Popular Entertainment in Irish America from the Civil War to World War I Ph. D. dissertation University of Washington 2012 373 p.
http://hdl.handle.net/1773/20658

"The Irish Bagpipe. Its Present and Future Status as a National Musical Instrument. (Interview with Mr. Patrick Touhey, the celebrated Irish-American Piper.)" [learns from Taylor and Egan] Irish World July 13, 1901 p. 8 column 7
Genealogybank.com
Reprinted in An Píobaire vol. 9 no. 5 Dec. 2013 pp. 27-28
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1018&mediaId=26059

Keith-Albee Managers' Report book, vol. 1 p. 299a [Touhey & Lacey enter in auto, Keith's Theatre, NYC July 1903] from the Keith/Albee Collection, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.
http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0356

Kelly, Michael "Pat ('Patsy') Touhey (1865-1923)" [O'Toole/Touhey family in Ireland] email March 7, 2019

Laurie, Joe, Jr. Vaudeville: from the honky-tonks to the Palace Henry Holt and Co. (1953) p. 298 [Freeport, Long Island, New York]

Mitchell, Pat and Jackie Small, The Piping of Patsy Touhey Na Píobairí Uilleann 1986 pp. 7-8 [Touhey and Chicago and Francis O'Neill]

' "The Musical Laugh Makers" Eckhoff and Gordon' [photo and caption] Variety Dec. 14, 1907 p. 41 column 1
Variety 1908 - 0358.pdf

'New Acts of the Week Chas.H. Burke, Pat Touhey and Company (2). "The Birthday Party" (Comedy)' [review] Variety Jan. 18, 1908 p. 11 column 2
Variety 1908 - 0594.pdf

O'Neill, Barry emails April 3, 2020 [examples of cylinder recordings which may have been sold by Touhey]

O'Neill, Barry "Finding Patsy Touhey's Family Home" The Pipers' Review vol. 17 no. 4 Fall 1998 pp. 11-13
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1036&mediaId=26371

O'Neill, Francis Irish Folk Music Chicago 1910 p. 32 [Touhey meets O'Neill]

O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 313-15 ["Agreeable in personality"; at the St. Louis World's Fair]

O'Neill, Francis letter to Henry Mercer Oct. 15, 1920 [declining health] From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

"The Opera House" [announcement of Harrigan's Tourists performance] Watertown [NY] Times April 6, 1886 p. 4 column 4
NYS Historic Newspapers
http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84035540/1886-04-06/ed-1/seq-4/

O'Rourke, Thomas "The World's Columbian Exhibition" [letter to editor; one of only two known contemporary references to Pat Touhey at the Chicago World's fair] Kerry [Ireland] Evening Post Sep. 20, 1893 p. 4
Irishnewsarchive.com

"Partner Wanted Irish comedian" ["I am not sick"] Variety May 23, 1919 p. 53 column 2
Variety 1919 - 2160.pdf

Touhey, Pat 78 recordings from the "Discography of American Historical Recordings," part of the "American Discography Project," a project of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/29913/Touhey_Patrick_J._instrumentalist_uilleann_pipes

Touhey, Pat Obituary Variety Jan. 19, 1923 p. 21 column 5
http://www.archive.org/stream/variety69-1923-01#page/n108/mode/1up

Tuohy, John "The Family of Many Names" [O'Toole/Touhey family in Ireland] 2016 22 p. unpublished article

"Vaude. Actor Dies in Action" [death of Touhey's nephew Tom Connelly] New York Clipper June 19, 1918, p. 7 column 4
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections
https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC19180619.2.83&e=-------en-20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%252522irish+bagpipes%252522--------

Whitmer, Nick "Hibernicons: Irish-themed Panorama Shows and Harrigan's Hibernian Company" 2018 in Nick's Piping Archive
http://www.whitmerpipes.com/touhey_panorama_shows.html

Whitmer, Nick "Pat Touhey's Earliest Known Tour" [with Harrigan's Double Hibernian Co.] 2017 in the Touhey Archive
http://www.whitmerpipes.com/touhey_first_tour.html

Whitmer, Nick "Trouble in the Irish Village" 2015 in the Touhey Archive
http://www.whitmerpipes.com/touhey_trouble_in_the_irish_village.pdf
First published in An Píobaire July 2015 Vol. 11 No. 3 pp. 26-8
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1035&mediaId=26647

Nick Whitmer
March 2020, additions April 2020, Oct. 2022, May 2024