How many Harrington sets exist?

[iain beag]

I think I have one of the Mike Wilkins replicas.

[Mr.Gumby]

Here's a snap from 1986 (note the Touhey book, newly launched the previous week, on the dash) :



This is an image of the Horniman Harrington set, a scan of a photocopy I took from a Horniman museum booklet somewhere during the mid eighties, :





An outboard A/G drone below the bass reg?

[geoff wooff]

Ah 1986 ! Not the year my mother's yellow Ford suffered brake failure during the Willie Clancy week !

Horniman museum set: note the central Bass drone placement again.

[Mr.Gumby]

Not the year my mother's yellow Ford suffered brake failure during the Willie Clancy week

No that was the year (or two) after. You drove with Andy Rigby and his friend to Tubbercurry, handbrake only. We went by bus, for safety.

In 86 we camped in a field in the Kerry mountains for days until the weather turned, the tents got leveled by a storm and we went to London to stay at your mum's for a few days. That was a good year. I was on the form. Plenty of excitement and good things.



I have a recording of you playing the Downfall of Paris while that snap was taken with the sheep coming down the road, bleating all over the place.

Horniman museum set: note the central Bass drone placement again.

Yes but looks tenor and bari reg swapped and a small drone taking a feed from side of the stock below the bass reg.

[PJ]

There seem to be nine Harrington sets including the stolen Cliff Castle Harrington set. Four of the sets are complete with their original chanters. If the Horniman Harrington and Cliff Castle Museum sets have their original chanters that would then make six complete original Harrington sets.

Reading O'Neill's (from Bill H's website), he mentions:

That an able pipemaker of that name once turned out nne instruments in the city of Cork is beyond question

The "nne instruments": could this be "nine" or "fine" or something else?

[myles]

It's "fine"

[geoff wooff]

Not the year my mother's yellow Ford suffered brake failure during the Willie Clancy week

No that was the year (or two) after. You drove with Andy Rigby and his friend to Tubbercurry, handbrake only. We went by bus, for safety.
me:
You were right too... that was a dangerous drive, with passengers pointing at things ( rubbernecking) and asking endless questions... and a large harp in the boot...... a very Aussie trip ( like crossing the Nullabor without a spare tyre)....

In 86 we camped in a field in the Kerry mountains for days until the weather turned, the tents got leveled by a storm and we went to London to stay at your mum's for a few days. That was a good year. I was on the form. Plenty of excitement and good things.



I have a recording of you playing the Downfall of Paris while that snap was taken with the sheep coming down the road, bleating all over the place.
Me:
Oh dear.

Nice photo! Please send me a copy. It will make a nice frontispiece for my upcoming book ( or website)

Horniman museum set: note the central Bass drone placement again.

Yes but looks tenor and bari reg swapped and a small drone taking a feed from side of the stock below the bass reg.

Me:
Yes I see that..... our Dennis was into the contraptions alright! Luckily mine is a normal set... there's enough for the piper to contend with as it is!

[Steampacket]

The Maloney brothers were a carpenter and a blacksmith. Harrington was a farmer's son and said to be mad for the music, so he probably was a piper, and obviously used to working with hand tools and had learned to use a lathe. I wonder though what instruments he used to get his measurements from in order to make his first sets, Kenna, Coyne or Egan? Prehaps Harrington worked as an apprentice in a musical instrument repair shop in Cork, or was apprenticed to a pipe maker, Thomas Flanagan what his workshop in Cork around 1820. Maybe he worked with a pipe maker in Dublin? Did Harrington make his own keys or have a silver smith do the work? Prehaps he made all the parts like Geoff Woof does today.

[bensdad]

Thomas, a couple of things about the Harrington set that belonged to (my teacher) Chris Langan:

He told me he bought the set from one Christy Fitzpatrick, who was an ostler for the Gardai in Dublin. Christy had several sets for sale, including, Chris said, a B flat set made of ebonite (an early plastic!) made by Butler, he thought. Chris’ visit to Fitzpatrick was on a Sunday, and he was such a devout man he refused payment on the Sabbath, and Chris payed him during the week.
Not exactly sure what year that was, but Chris also told me that in 1958 he had Crowley in Cork make him a bass regulator for the set for the princely sum of £9. 15s! As Chris commented (in 1989) “My god you wouldn’t get a reed for that now!”

There is a lovely picture of Chris playing the Harrington set in kitchen in Toronto in the 1950s, though I cannot seem to find it right now. But I do remember that in the background, on the stove, was the same battered teakettle we used to make tea in when I visited in the 1980s and 1990s. A lovely and enduring symbol of a tradition of domestic music making and hospitality.

He said he traded the Harrington set to the Rowsome family in exchange for one of Leo’s sets and about £30. Benedict Koehler now plays that Rowsome chanter.

He also told me he was in touch with Christy Fitzpatrick’s family at one point trying to trace the lineage of the set, but they didn’t know.

Hope that clarifies something, somehow. I still never found out who it ended up with.

[Steampacket]

Thanks Bensdad for that interesting information. I had no idea that Chris bought the set from Christy Fitzpatrick, and that he had Crowley make a bass regulator for the set.

He also told me he was in touch with Christy Fitzpatrick’s family at one point trying to trace the lineage of the set, but they didn’t know. Bensdad

I wonder who Christy bought the set from, and when did Chris sell the set to Leo in exchange for a concert pitch set and £30? During the early '60's maybe?

He said he traded the Harrington set to the Rowsome family in exchange for one of Leo’s sets and about £30. Benedict Koehler now plays that Rowsome chanter. Bensdad

Does Benedict have the rest of the Rowsome set. or just the chanter?

[bensdad]

I am not sure about the rest of the Rowsome set. I will ask BK when I see him at the Tylenol in October.
Torrin pointed out that Ronan’s website lists two Harrington sets in his possession, and it appears to me the second “brass” set (as Ronan calls it) was Chris’ set, because Ronan says it came with a bass reg by another maker. (http://www.ronanbrowne.com/ronanbrowneb ... ments.html)

[bensdad]

Torrin also pointed out that in this video of Ronan’s son Diarmaid he is playing that second Harrington set, albeit with a different chanter.
https://youtu.be/ybW_-XFYCTs

[Mr.Gumby]

it appears to me the second “brass” set (as Ronan calls it) was Chris’ set,

Comparing the two visually as best we can from photographs of Chris with the set, there are signs to suggest Browne's is a different one. So far I didn't post pics of Browne with these sets as I thought they'd be well known but here's one , taken around 1990. His other set is detailed in the 2011 NPU calendar linked in an earlier post :




FWIW, Chris' had a straight bass drone end in the photos and (the top of) the Crowley bass reg is distinctly different from the bass that used to be on the Browne Harrington (there' another photo of Chris with the set where you CAN see that).



I have heard different speculative accounts of what may have happened to Chris'. Chinese whispers, perhaps. Best leave it at that.

[Steampacket]

Was the Dublin Gardai ostler, Christy Fitzpatrick, a piper or a collector/dealer of uilleann pipes? I've never heard of him before this thread. Did he leave a collection of pipes when he passed away?

Did Leo Rowsome make any flat sets or did he just take in old flat sets, such as Harringtons, as part exchange for his concert pitch sets in order to study them, or to sell on? Are there any recordings of Leo playing a flat set, a Harrington or Egan for example?

Are there any known photos of the Cliff Castle Harrington taken before it disappeared?

[Mr.Gumby]

Are there any known photos of the Cliff Castle Harrington taken before it disappeared?

There was a photo in the Piobaire when it was stolen 'Egan stolen' it said. 1987-ish

Are there any recordings of Leo playing a flat set

For half of of the 'King of the pipers' (originally the 'B' side of the lp) he played a C. For example.