Hugh J. Cavanaugh

motorman, player, organizer; a private recording exists

b. Roosky, Co. Roscommon, Ireland July 20, 1889
d. Magnolia, New Jersey April 1973

Photo in the Tom Busby collection of photographs at Na Píobairí Uilleann, Dublin.

Hugh Cavanaugh lived most of his life in Brooklyn, New York, and was active in Irish social and musical circles, particularly in the 1920s. He was a student and great supporter of piper Michael Carney. His occupation was trolley or subway motorman and bus driver; there is no indication he ever tried to make a living playing music.

Cavanaugh (he also spelled it Cavanagh) was born in County Roscommon. The Ireland Census, 1901, shows his mother Mary as head of house and Hugh as youngest of five siblings. His eldest brother Patrick emigrated to Brooklyn before 1909. In 1911 Hugh and his brother Michael sailed to New York City together. Hugh would have been about 21 years old. The passenger list for the S. S. Baltic, rather detailed, says Hugh had $15 in his pocket on arrival. His height 5 feet 9 inches, complexion fair, color of hair fair, eyes blue. He and Michael were to join brother Patrick.

Starting in 1919 Hughie Cavanaugh is mentioned several times in the New York Advocate, an Irish-American newspaper, in the society columns. He is regarded as a popular bachelor, referred to as a lady's man in a teasing way. "Hughie Cavanaugh did it big Sunday night. The young lady was heard saying, 'Stop your fooling, Hughie.' " This squib also mentions that Cavanaugh was to help "supply the music" at a dance at Tammany Hall, Brooklyn (not to be confused with Tammany Hall the political organization in Manhattan), February 1919, the earliest known mention of him as musician.

Little is known about Cavanaugh's musical background. He began to take pipe lessons from Michael Carney, probably 1919 or earlier. Many years later he was described as an "excellent piper and flute player."

From a short article about him, November 1920:

Mr. Cavanaugh has just completed a course of lessons on the Irish bagpipes. Mr. Carney was his instructor. Hugh is the possessor of a brand new set of pipes, also made by Mr. Carney. Patsy Touhy, Jim Scanlon, Tom Ennis and other celebrated pipers of note say that Cavanaugh in a short while can be classed among the best. This we are glad to know, as Hugh is popular in Brooklyn.

Michael Carney (1872-1938) was one of the finest pipers of his era. He was also confined to a wheelchair and making a living was difficult. Carney was a likable person and a group of friends loved and supported him, Cavanaugh among them. Benefit dances were held for Carney two or three times a year and this continued until his death. Cavanaugh organized many of the benefits held in Brooklyn and was among the musicians for a few; piper Eddie Burke, also from Roscommon, organized similar events in Manhattan.

In the early 1920s Cavanaugh was very active musically, mostly playing for dances. Some of these gigs were with Carney and Burke and others in a profit-making capacity, not benefits. He was accepted by an elite group of Irish musicians and was mentioned in a poem about Irish musicians in New York, 1921, by John Ennis:

Hugh Cavenaugh, the piper, as rogueish a lad
As e'er charmed the girls 'round the town of Cloonfad,
Played "The Swallow's Tail Reel" and "The Tenpenny Bit"
With a tempo and spirit that scored him a hit.

In February 1922 Cavanaugh entered a well-advertised Irish pipers contest held at Keith's theaters in Brooklyn, competing against what one might call the second line of pipers in New York, not the biggest names. He did not place.

A newspaper mention in August 1922 suggests that he was about to return to Ireland for a visit.

Cavanaugh married Mary Cottingham of Clifden, Co. Galway in April 1926. His journalist friend James A. Hayden wrote a generous account of the marriage. Pipers Michael Carney and Francis X. Hennessy played at the wedding reception.

It is not a surprise that after a couple years of marriage, and later the birth of three children, mentions of Cavanaugh's musical activities diminish. His name occurs less often in the papers, and there are no musical references after 1935.

A 1952 newspaper picture caption describes Cavanagh as a trolley car motorman [driver] and later a city bus driver with 42 years of service and never an accident.

In the early 1970s Barry O'Neill began researching and seeking out old Irish pipers. He recalls tracking down Hugh Cavanaugh in Magnolia, New Jersey. "His relatives who he was living with were very suspicious but he was very friendly. I have a faint memory of him saying that he loaned his pipes to Martin Beirne for his Grand Spy recording."

Cavanaugh did have a connection with Martin Beirne. In 1936 Beirne and his Irish Blackbirds Orchestra recorded a set of reels for the Columbia label, including the tune "Hughie Cavanaugh's Favorite."

Hugh Cavanaugh died April 1973, probably in New Jersey. He and Mary, who died in 1984, are buried next to each other in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn. The name on the stone is spelled Cavanagh.

A cylinder recording exists of Hughie Cavanagh, pipes, and John or Jack Otis, fiddle, playing "The Boyne Hunt." It is in the Busby-Carney Collection of cylinder recordings held by the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin. It was likely recorded in the 1920s on an Edison cylinder phonograph then in the possession of Michael Carney.

Selected References

"Boyne hunt by two sheep stealerss [sound recording] / by two sheep stealers Hughie Cavanagh and Jack Otis" [sheep stealers a nickname for people from Roscommon] Busby-Carney Collection cylinder recordings at the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin. Their catalogue entry:
https://itma.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/240209

Carolan, Nicholas "Martin Beirne, Uilleann Piper, and his Irish Blackbirds Orchestra" [Hughie Cavanaugh's Favorite] An Píobaire vol. 11 no. 1 Feb. 2015 pp. 26-27
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1035&mediaId=26316

Ennis, John "Irish Music in New York 'A Typical Meeting of the "Craft" reported in rhyme by John Ennis' " An Píobaire vol. 4 no. 21 Aug. 2003 pp. 26-8
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1013&mediaId=26007

Hayden, James A. "In Irish Circles" [piper and flute player] NY Advocate Jan. 27, 1934 p. 7 column 4
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1932-1934 - 0974.pdf

Hayden, James A. "News, Notes and Comment Pipers Contest in Brooklyn." NY Advocate Feb. 4, 1922 p. 4 column 6
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0064

Hayden, James A. "News, Notes and Comment Popular Irish Musician Weds." NY Advocate May 1, 1926 p. 2 column 4
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1925-1927 - 0647.pdf

Hayden James A. "A Piper in the Making." [completed a course of lessons] NY Advocate Nov. 20, 1920 p. 6 column 1
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1919-1921 - 0847.pdf

Keating, John J. "Brooklyn Notes" [Stop your fooling, Hughie.] NY Advocate Feb. 22, 1919 p. 6 column 2
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1919-1921 - 0091.pdf

Keating, John J. "Brooklyn Notes" [about to visit (his) sireland.] NY Advocate Aug. 19, 1922 p. 2 column 4
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0314.pdf

Kelly, Michael "The Cloonfad Piper" [much about Eddie Burke] An Píobaire part 1 vol. 13 no. 1 Jan. 2017 pp. 20-4; part 2 vol. 13 no. 2 April 2017 pp. 18-23
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1138&mediaId=27287
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1138&mediaId=27290

"Old Timers" [photo of Cavanaugh as trolley motorman] Brooklyn [NY] Eagle Oct. 26, 1952 p. 35 column 3
Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle 1952 Grayscale - 7163.pdf

O'Neill, Barry email May 2, 2019

Nick Whitmer
May 2019, addition April 2023