Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

69
SPreAD OF ‘UnIOn PIPeS’
was followed by, among others, a Mr edward reynolds, ‘late from
Dublin’ who was performing on the ‘Irish union pipes’ in Boston in
March 1812; 226 and a Charles P.F. O’hara, a multi-instrumentalist
who had ‘resided many years in the west of Ireland’, and who
published The Gentleman’s Musical Repository; being a selection
from the ancient and modern music of Erin, and several original
pieces by the compiler; adapted to the violin, flute, flageolet, hautboy
and union pipes in new york in January 1813. 227 Among these pipers,
the instrument was most commonly called the ‘Irish union pipes’; 228
they were, seemingly, signalling an ethnic connection to their
audiences in a way that had not often happened in Britain. But these
Irish players also simply used the term ‘union pipes’. Both varieties
of the term are also found used by professional pipers, both Scottish
and Irish, in Australia (from 1815) 229 and in Canada (from 1835). 230
But by the fourth decade of the century, with its virtual disappearance
from the British stage, the instrument seems to have come to the end
of its run of popularity in Britain. It had by no means however disappeared
from more modest venues such as taverns and halls there.
Outstanding new Irish players on the ‘union pipes’, such as the blind
William Talbot from roscrea, Co Tiperary, about 1822, 231 continued
to find it worth their while to play in Britain and arrived there from
226
Columbian Centinel, Boston, 22 Feb. 1812.
227
Columbian, new york, 2 Jan. 1813.
228
See Carolan 2011: 22–5.
229
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Sydney, 20 May 1815; 2 Sept.
1815. The newspaper of the first date has already been cited for the notice inserted
by a presumably Scottish piper James Stewart about his ‘Set of Union
Pipes’; the second has an advertisement from a shop selling musical instruments
including ‘Union Pipes’.
230
Quebec Gazette, Quebec, 20 March 1835. The newspaper carries a notice of a
St Patrick’s Day dinner at which a Mr Macnally played on the ‘Irish Union
Pipes’. I am obliged to Patrick McSweeney, Quebec, for a copy of this reference.
231
Morning Chronicle, london, 13 Dec. 1822.