Who is responsible for saving the UP's from extinction

[pancelticpiper]

Many people have mentioned the 60s and 70s but then the Folk Music Revival was well underway and many people were discovering ITM.

In Francis O Neill's turn of the century writings his fear that the uilleann pipes were in danger of extinction is palpable. The instrument had in fact become extinct in Britain a century before.

The nadir, I suppose, would have been in the Great Wars period when many people were turning from traditional dancing to swing dancing and so forth.

Don't know if it's true- I can scarcely believe it- but I recall reading somewhere that at one point there were only three uilleann pipemakers in Ireland and the number of pipers could be counted on your fingers.

[Mike Hulme]

Chris Bayley in England was making pipes in the late 70's. Dave Williams came to him for advice around then, and was shown how to bore out using D bits, etc. Chris gave him his first D bit - 5/32" if I remember rightly. They bought consumables together (wood, tubing, etc.) over a number of years, and exchanged information over a longer period.

John Addison was also making UPs at that time, as were Wilkinson and McCarthy, and I know Alan Ginsberg used to get the ferry over to Ireland at weekends, to study with Dan O'Dowd and Matt Kiernan.

Mike

[RLines]

Clearly Leo Rowsome is central. There has never been another figure in piping who excelled at pipe making, teaching and performing/recording. There is no one else in piping who straddles those three disciplines as he did. We have great makers. Great performers. Great teachers. But I don't know anyone other than Leo that embodied all three of those gifts.

Other than Leo, it's important to credit what today might be called part time or amateur makers. I use that term reservedly because it does not reflect at all on the quality of the instruments, but they were putting instruments in people's hands during the middle decades of the 20th century. Makers such as Patsy Brown and Pat Hennelly in the US. Dan O'Dowd and Matt Kiernan in Ireland. Chris Langan in Canada. And others. To my mind those part time makers bridge an important gap, and in many cases were mentors to some of today's top professional makers.

[Steampacket]

"The nadir, I suppose, would have been in the Great Wars period when many people were turning from traditional dancing to swing dancing and so forth. Don't know if it's true- I can scarcely believe it- but I recall reading somewhere that at one point there were only three uilleann pipemakers in Ireland and the number of pipers could be counted on your fingers." Pancelticpiper.

I don't think it was ever that bad really. From 1900 to the 1960's in Ireland you had William Rowsome, R. O'Mealy, Leo Rowsome, Tadgh & Denis Crowley, Moss Kennedy, Dan O'Dowd, Matt Kiereran- That's eight makers. In 2015 Na Piobairí Uilleann lists thirteen active uilleann pipemakers in Ireland.


Plenty of pipers too in Ireland 1900-1960's to name a few: Turlogh McSweeney, Peter Kelly, Ned Hogan, Gorman the piper, Nicholas Markey, Samuel Rowsome, John Rowsome, Stephen Ruane, James Early, Canon Goodman, Garrett Barry, John Cummings, Denis Delaney, Bernard Delaney, Mollie Morrissey, John S. Wayland, Denis O' Leary, William Andrews, John Cash, Mary McCarthy, Leo Rowsome, Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Sean Reid, Peter Loughlin, Johnny Doran, Felix Doran, Tony Rainey, Martin Rochford, Dan O'Dowd, Richard O'Mealy ...

[pancelticpiper]

1900 to 1960 is a broad time-period around three generations long (using the common reckoning of 20-year generations).

What that quote I had heard was referring to was the bottleneck, the specific point in time (when? around 1940? 1950?) when the number of makers and players was at its smallest.

So... for sake of argument, how many active makers were there in Ireland in, say, 1945? (To pick a specific point in time.) Perhaps all those you mention?

As people have pointed out, even if the pipes had become extinct in Ireland there were North American makers to carry the torch.

[Steampacket]

"So... for sake of argument, how many active makers were there in Ireland in, say, 1945? (To pick a specific point in time.) Perhaps all those you mention?" Parcelticpiper


Well here are nine uilleann pipe makers, I'm sure there are more
Dan O'Dowd
Tadgh & Denis Crowley, Cork, were making pipes in the 1940's, stopped making them around 1950
Leo Rowsome
James Mulcrone (retired 1942 but apparently still making and repairing uilleann pipes
Richard L. O'Mealy in ill health during his last years, but still piping and making until his death in 1947
Jim Macintosh then bought O'Mealy's lathe and tools in 1947 and had a go at pipe making
Frank McFadden
Sean McAloon (1923-1998) not sure when McAloon started making pipes, but in 1945 he would have been 22 years old
John Clarke