The Piping Underclass

[First published in An Píobaire vol. 18 no. 1 Feb. 2022 pp. 36-45]

The "Irish pipes" or uilleann pipes, as they are called today, were fairly well known in the United States from about 1870-1920. At any given time in this period there were a few professional players, a few more who might be considered semi-professional or part-time players, and a larger number of amateurs. For example, in the decade 1900-1909 I have seen references to more than 100 pipers, 24 of which might be considered professional or semi-professional. Most of what is known about these pipers comes from newspapers, public documents, and the memories of participants or followers of Irish traditional music.

As one might imagine, available information tends to focus on the most successful or active musicians. Occasionally, however, one gets a glimpse of apparent full or part-time pipers whose musical activities seem not very successful, their lives often unstable; gigs are usually busking or pass-the-hat situations. Sometimes there are suggestions of much travel, brushes with the law, problems with alcohol.

What can be known about this piping underclass? This article examines clues about pipers in the United States; pipers in Ireland and other parts of the world are not mentioned.

Busking

caption: "Street Scenes in New York - The old Irish Piper."
Illustration on cover of the New York National Police Gazette, Nov. 23, 1867 p. 1 column 1
New York NY National Police Gazette 1867-1879 Grayscale - 0053.pdf

Busking is playing on the street or in a public place in hopes that passers-by will give money for the performance.

References to pipers as street performers are uncommon. Fewer still are ones that are clearly referring to the Irish pipes. I have found less than a dozen references to unnamed Irish pipers in newspaper indexes, millions of pages. Here are three.

In a plaza at Oakland, California, July 1869, was heard music of "inexplicable harmony-a combination of Irish bag-pipes, American horse-fiddle and Chinese tom-tom." In Port Jervis, New York, September 1882, "-A man with an Irish bag-pipe and another with an ancient pipe or flute were in town this forenoon making people wish they had never been born." An Irish bag-piper appeared on the streets in Franklin, Indiana, May 1885, and he, along with a dog fight, drew a bigger crowd than a traveling circus. The two latter examples suggest that busking with Irish pipes was not limited to urban centers or places with a large Irish population.

In the cities, street performing was sometimes considered a problem worthy of legal or administrative solution. Boston had a licensing system for many years. In 1898 musicians had to pass an audition with a "music commission" to obtain a license. Of the applicants,

'Corny Scanlan plays Irish pipes. The pipes are a peculiar group of instruments. They seem to require a great deal of gesturing, and make a choaking [sic] squeal. Corny would not turn the drones loose, but hit the chanter only. He said "the drones are not going," and played the Liverpool hornpipe.

By 1903 the licensing of street musicians in Boston was left to a Police Sergeant. Licenses had been issued to 134 musicians by June, most of whom were Italian. Included were "two Irish bagpipe players, Messrs. Scannell and Mack."

"Corney Scanlan" or "Scannell" was Cornelius Scanlan. Best evidence indicates he was born in Ireland in 1840, immigrated in 1875 and lived in Boston from about 1883. He was married, had at least six children, for a time worked as a shoemaker. He died in 1905 at the State Hospital in Tewksbury, MA, a place which served "as a last resort for patients in need of shelter and supervised care." Mack was probably Samuel Mack (1845-after 1913), a native of Co. Clare and in later years a pipemaker and who briefly lived in Boston about this time.

In his book Irish Minstrels and Musicians, Francis O'Neill mentions the blind piper Patrick Flannery who came from County Galway to New York City about 1845. He died "as he was entertaining a fascinated audience on the streets of Brooklyn in the year 1855."

The New-York Historical Society of New York City owns an enormous painting by Louis Lang, "Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. from the seat of War" (the United States Civil War) painted about 1862. In the crowd is a white-haired man playing an uilleann pipe chanter. A contemporary review of the painting notes "The blind Irish piper and his daughter, are so true to nature, as to be readily recalled to mind, by those who have seen the originals, in their walks, through the lower part of the city." Was this man a street player? Or could this have been Charles Ferguson (c1828-1875), a well-known concert player?

In 1890 New York City Alderman Dowd "asked permission for William Sullivan of 540 Canal street to play the bagpipes in the streets. The matter was referred to the Law Committee." This is very likely the same man who was playing "Irish bagpipes" at a social event in 1887.

On the Road

There is scattered evidence of pipers who liked - or felt compelled - to travel. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1886, "An Irish piper, a genuine representative of this very scarce musical genius in this country, perambulated the streets last week with his pipe, piping music as peculiar as it was non-poetic." It was soon apparent this man, unnamed, was very drunk. He was held in jail until sober. The impression is clear he was not a resident. Cedar Rapids is about 240 miles (390 km) west of Chicago, an out of the way place for an Irish piper.

Two pipers, from different parts of the country, were inclined to travel about with their pipes.

Patrick Tormey (probably 1823-1889) was born in Ireland and spent many years in Richland County, Wisconsin.

Pat. Tormy, a bagpipe player, whom almost everyone in this locality has seen or heard of, returned to his home near Rickland Center recently [March 1884], minus one foot. He is an old resident of that county, and though he has small property interests near the Center, and having no family, he has for years made a practice of going from place to place to play in saloons and other places for "snops" and hat collections. At least one sport out of each ten within five hundred miles of here can tell of some game which has been perpetrated on the old fellow. He was almost always under the influence of liquor, and it is supposed that this accounts for his late mishap, as we understand he was run over by a freight train at Council Bluffs, Iowa. A Spring Green lad is accountable for filling the old fellow's bagpipes with kerosene oil on one occasion.

Tormey was arrested and jailed twice in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in February 1882 for Saturday night sprees. A "Pat Tramway," probably the same man, was "an Irish piper arrested on the charge of vagrancy" at Springfield, Illinois, August 1886. Tormey died in Chicago March 15, 1889 at the Cook County Infirmary, the Chicago almshouse. It may have taken some time before the family was notified; an administrator of his estate was not appointed until Sept. 1890.

Less turbulent were the habits of James Duggan (c1822-1902), a farm worker who lived near Newtown, Connecticut. He was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland and came to America around 1850. He could play Highland and Irish pipes. After his wife died, about 1882, he became unhappy and restless.

Mr Duggan does chores now and then on a farm at Newtown, but naturally of a roving turn of mind, this kind of work becomes monotonous and when it weighs too heavily on him he puts his pipes under his arm and goes out into the world and tramps from town to town until he gets tired, and then he returns to his old home in Newtown.

Duggan died at the Fairfield County, CT almshouse in 1902, aged 80 years.

At least two pipers were reported as missing in circumstances which involved travel.

Information about Daniel Crowley, of Killeavan, County Wexford, was requested by his family in Ireland in 1866. Thirty years old, "He is a master of his bagpipes, which he has played since he was a boy," and was last reported working, probably in the salt industry, in Oswego, New York, and intending to work "at the Salt Springs, Syracuse, N Y."

In 1882 Mary Lawless of Brooklyn, New York, came to Police Headquarters in Jersey City, New Jersey, seeking information about her son Patrick Lawless. She had not seen him

since August 13, 1880. He left his home in Brooklyn that day to go to Jersey City, and never returned, and his mother heard that he was killed accidentally. He made a living going about playing Irish bagpipes. He had some money in a bank in Boston, which his mother, being destitute, is anxious to get, but cannot because she has no proof of his death. The police promised to aid her in learning her son's fate.

Another account says, "She recently heard that in August, 1880, her son was killed in a railroad accident in Jersey City while returning from a picnic." I have found no further information about the fate of Patrick Lawless.

Games and Picnics

Caption "The Bagpipe Man."
"Irish Athletes They Have a Royal Time at Oak Island It Was a Red Letter Day for National Association Fully 7000 Picnickers at the Grove." [Irish National Athletic Association Games, 1891] Boston [MA] Daily Globe Aug. 6, 1891 p. 1 column 7
Newspaperarchive.com

Outdoor social and athletic events were organized in cities with large Irish and Irish-American populations. Some of these were huge, with thousands of attendees. Social clubs, churches and political organizations sometimes had all-day "excursions," in which a group travelled from city center to a park or a beach resort by boat or barge, sometimes by railroad. Music and dancing were usually a part of all of these events. Irish pipers were sometimes announced as being among the musicians, most often between 1875-1900.

Pipers were occasionally named, but usually when only one piper was playing at the event. Well-known pipers played from time to time at picnics, games and excursions, including Barney Delaney, John Egan, Tom Ennis, Thomas F. Kerrigan and James T. Touhey. Pat "Patsy" Touhey played picnics early in his career.

But here we are focusing on the less known, less successful. If more than one piper was playing at an event the pipers were almost never named.

In 1879 members of the W. W. Cook Association, organized in honor of a former New York State Assemblyman, had an annual clambake. They took a steamboat from lower Manhattan to a resort at College Point, Queens, about fourteen miles (22 kilometers). "On the lower deck three genuine Irish pipers were playing reels and jigs, and from the moment the steamer left the dock until she touched at College Point dancing was kept up."

In Chicago, July 4, 1891, 5,000 people attended the Clan-na-Gael picnic. There were sports and games, and "The pavilion was set apart for a dance, a continuous dance."

But the dance of the day was a real Irish dance in real Irish style, with a full blown Irish piper, his pipes bedecked with the emblem of the Green Isle, while round his shoulders was woven, in not particularly graceful folds, some yards of the stars and stripes. The piper was a thin, pale-faced little man, nothing like the pipers of [songwriter Samuel] Lover or of [novelist Charles] Lever. There was a general opinion that he was only an apology for a piper, but but still he played away much to the delight of a few of the lovers of the real old Irish [music.]

New York State Assemblyman Thomas J. McManus held a picnic at Lion Park, Manhattan, for his constituents in September 1893. 50,000 tickets were handed out, and 30,000 people were expected to attend if the weather was good. "A score of genuine Irish pipers have been engaged for the occasion. They will be stationed about the grounds, and will furnish music for little groups of old men and their wives who wish to revive memories of long ago in the reels and jigs of old Ireland. ... Two bands will furnish [American] dancing music in the pavilions."

A score of pipers! Likely an exaggeration, but other large events in New York City advertised in a similar way: "hosts of Irish pipers, fiddlers and other musicians on hand," "fifty pipers and fiddlers," etc. Best evidence is that these musicians were not compensated by the organizers, but were paid by passing the hat. The writer of a letter to the editor of the New York Advocate, 1913, complained that the dancers were expected to pay the musicians after each dance. This after the dancers had paid admission to the event. The writer could not understand "why American dancing should be allowed, exclusively, in the main hall, FREE, and Irish dancing driven into holes and corners and CHARGED FOR."

In August 1905 the Galway Men's Social and Benevolent Association of New York City held its eighteenth annual excursion. This time around they hired three pipers, paired with three fiddlers, to "the exclusion of itinerant musicians; all music being paid for by them and all attempts at passing the hat utterly discountenanced." This provoked a positive editorial note in the Advocate.

There is no lack of Irish musicians-deacent [sic] and deserving men, who would be very glad to play at an Irish excursion, picnic or ball; they have not been encouraged though, and consequently they have left the field to those who are willing to run chances in passing around the hat. On the Sligo excursion there were at least 15 of these musicians, much more than the natural demand necessitated; it was the same on the Cork and Longford excursions, some of them could not make more than a dollar or two at most.

The pipers most likely to "run chances" of small pay were probably the least favored in opportunities to play, in resources, perhaps in musical skill. Since they were so seldom named, it is hard to find examples of players who made up these "hosts of pipers." John Hicks (1830-1883) had a career in vaudeville for a time but had health problems in his later years; obituaries assert he was active at "Irish festivals" and events in the New York City region. David Holron, arrested at Troy, New York in 1885 for deserting his family, "plays bagpipes at picnics." Patrick Griffin of New York City, arrested in July 1895 for beating his wife, was "an Irish bagpipe player for picnics and parties."

Busking and playing at picnics, games and excursions seem to be the least esteemed and least remunerative gigs for pipers in this era.

Worn-out Chanters

Old well-worn Taylor-style chanter, photographed with unfinished copy or replica, 2011. Bottom photo is completed new chanter with bone mounts from the old one.
Photographs by the author.

What sort of pipes might a piper like Patrick Tormey have used? That is, what condition were they in? I imagine years of hard usage, likely carried in a bag not a hard case, as the pipers of old were supposed to have done. Perhaps not a top-quality instrument to begin with, but in any event whittled-down by neglect or abuse.

I have seen one chanter, and dimly recall one or two others, which have suffered a remarkable amount of wear and abuse. The chanter I remember best was associated with a Taylor-style set, at the time a box of parts, probably made within 10 or 20 years of 1900. The chanter is of ebony, and in the Taylor long-block style. It originally had four keys, none of which survived. Parts of the pin blocks had been cut and filed away. The finger holes are smoothly worn in a way that suggests decades of heavy use. There are cracks in the lower part of the chanter. I spent little time trying to reed it, thinking that it was a lost cause. A subsequent owner tells me he has the chanter playing well.

As pipemaker Benedict Koehler told me once, speaking of old pipes, "If only they could talk."

I suspect that most players would tolerate a worn-out chanter such as this only because of habit or necessity. It is not unlikely that the chanter was owned by a player who lived a similarly rough life. If so, the chanter is a bit of residue, one of the few things that survive to evoke the piping underclass.

Selected References

"Brief Mention." [wish they had never been born] Port Jervis NY Evening Gazette Sep. 15, 1882 p. 1 column 5
Port Jervis NY Evening Gazette 1882 - 0897.pdf

"City & Neighborhood News." [dog fight and an Irish bag-piper] Franklin [IN] Daily Herald May 15, 1885 p. 4 column 3
Newspaperarchive.com

"City Notes." [David Holron] Troy [NY] Daily Times June 12, 1885 p. 3 column 1
Troy NY Daily Times 1884-1885 - 0628.pdf

"City and Suburbs" [Patrick Touhey plays at picnics in 1887-88] Waterbury [CT] Evening Democrat June 20, 1888 p. 4 column 1
Library of Congress Chronicling America
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94053256/1888-06-20/ed-1/seq-4/

"The Clan-na-Gael Picnic." Chicago IL Sunday Inter Ocean July 5, 1891 p. 14 column 7; p. 15 column 1
Newspapers.com

"Cork Men to Celebrate this Saturday Night" [fifty pipers and fiddlers] NY Advocate Sep. 6, 1913 p. 2 column 4
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1913-1915 - 0285.pdf

Doings of the Aldermen." [William Sullivan] New York Times Jan. 22, 1890 p. 3 column 4
Newspapers.com

"End of the Picnic Season." [McManus picnic] New York World Sep. 2, 1893 p. 2 column 6
Library of Congress Chronicling America
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1893-09-02/ed-2/seq-2/

"Excursion of Galway Men's Association." [exclusion of itinerant musicians; Editorial Notes] NY Irish American Advocate Aug. 12, 1905 p. 4 columns 1 and 4
From microfilm from NY State Library.

"Griffin Kicked His Wife." [Patrick Griffin] Evening Telegram-New York July 10, 1895 p. 6 column 1
New York NY Evening Telegram 1895 Jul - Nov Grayscale - 0071.pdf

"Has Music Charms?" [Corny Scanlan plays Irish pipes] Boston [MA] Journal Dec. 16, 1898 p. 5 column 6
GenealogyBank.com

"Home News Jersey City" [Patrick Lawless] New-York Daily Tribune May 11, 1882 p. 8 column 4
ProQuest Historical Newspapers

"How Boston Guards Against Untuneful Street Organs" [Messrs. Scannell and Mack] Boston [MA] Sunday Post Sep. 13, 1903 p. 18 column 5
Newspaperarchive.com

"Information Wanted." [Daniel Crowley] Boston MA Pilot Nov. 10, 1866 p. 8 column 7
Boston College Libraries
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18661110-01.2.76.5&srpos=87&e=-------en-20--81-byDA-txt-txIN-%22bagpipes%22------

"Local Intelligence." [Irish bag-pipes, American horse-fiddle and Chinese tom-tom] Oakland [CA] Daily Transcript July 5, 1869 p. 3 column 1
GenealogyBank.com

"Mere Mention." [playing drunk in the streets] Cedar Rapids IA Weekly Times July 22, 1886 p. 3 column 2
Newspaperarchive.com

"A Missing Piper." [Patrick Lawless railroad accident] Jersey City NJ Evening Journal May 10, 1882 p. 4 column 2
GenealogyBank.com

"Monaghan Men Prepare for Great Summernight's Festival." [hosts of Irish pipers...] NY Advocate Sep. 2, 1911 p. 2 column 2
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1911 - 0731.pdf

"The Music Question at Celtic Park." [Letter to Editor: Irish dancing driven into holes and corners] NY Advocate Jun. 7, 1913 p. 4 column 5
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1913-1915 - 0179.pdf

O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians 1913 pp. 204-05. [Patrick Flannery]

"Police Court." [Patrick Tormey arrested 1st time] Fort Wayne [IN] Daily Sentinel Feb. 6, 1882 p. 1 column 6
Newspaperarchive.com

"Police Court." [Patrick Tormey arrested 2nd time] Fort Wayne [IN] Daily Sentinel Feb. 20, 1882 p. 1 column 6
Newspaperarchive.com

Public Health Museum in Massachusetts [Tewksbury State Hospital] Website accessed Nov. 2021
https://www.publichealthmuseum.org/about-us.html

"Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. from the seat of War" painting by Louis Lang 1862-63, collection of the New-York Historical Society, New York, NY, object number 1886.3
https://emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/18593/return-of-the-69th-irish-regiment-nysm-from-the-seat-of?ctx=9f78d827e583502a2df1cec4aed8053d157f9d00&idx=7

"Roundabout Notes." [Patrick Tormey] Reprinted from the Spring Green News. Lancaster WI Grant County Herald March 27, 1884 p. 4 column 5
Newspapers.com

"Tipperary Turns Out." [Billy Sullivan plays Irish bagpipes] New York Sun July 25, 1887 p. 3 column 4
Library of Congress Chronicling America
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1887-07-25/ed-1/seq-3/

"Typical Irish Piper." [James Duggan] Waterbury [CT] Evening Democrat May 8, 1900 p. 1 column 6
Library of Congress Chronicling America
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2016270503/1900-05-08/ed-1/seq-1/

"W. W. Cook Association." New York Evening Express Sep. 17, 1879 p. 1 column 3
New York NY Evening Express 1879 - 0586.pdf

Ward, Pat (1847-1928) "The Care and Management of Pipes" [Carry them (the set) in a bag - you will shake(?) no reed or guil in a bag.] Copied by Barry O'Neill from Séamus Ó Casaide's manuscripts in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.

Whitmer, Nick "Charles Ferguson" entry on the "Lives of the Pipers" Website 2018
http://livesofthepipers.com/1fergusoncharles.html

Whitmer, Nick "John Hicks" entry on the "Lives of the Pipers" Website 2018
http://livesofthepipers.com/1hicksjohn.html

Whitmer, Nick "Mack, Samuel" entry in "Irish or Uilleann Bagpipe Makers, North America, Before 1950" on the "Lives of the Pipers" Website 2020
http://livesofthepipers.com/pipemakers.html#mack

Whitmer, Nick "Named pipers" from my files. In Jan. 2022 I counted 106 pipers active in North America between 1900-1909. Of these, 24 were professional, earning money for piping. 31 pipers were only named once, implying amateur status or transitory interest in piping. Locations included 20 in New York City, Chicago 17, Boston 12, Philadelphia 7.

Nick Whitmer
Nov. 2021-Jan. 2022