the thread title says it all…
what on Earth is that costume about??
Yes in Vaudville, Irish performers wore top hats and kneebreeches etc, but this is far beyond that.
Oh yes, that’s Edmund Huther, probably just back from his Corned Beef-Belt tour of the Ottoman Empire. He regularly made the circuit entertaining the Galatians (Anatolian Celts) at their summer retreats in Cappadocia at the turn of the last century.
It’s in fact Johnny Patterson. Huhter was the photographer. Full article in Ceol V(II), march 1982
see also : Johnny Patterson
He had the best (and only ) reason for wearing a clown’s outfit: he was a fecking clown by profession.
For the seriously deluded costumes watch Billy Andrews in this old newsreel
Fezzy. What is so odd about this costume? I know a piper who might wear something like this…he likes the attention.
I always thought that was Johnny Patterson too…
I wonder who Huther was, the photographer…
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/johnny_patterson.htm
Tommy
he looks to have the same spidery fingers Seamus Ennis had…
though I doubt Seamus would have gussied up like that
I think it could be a picture of Uilliam Hackett before he went long and grey.
RORY
rather fetching ensemble methinks btw the author o dis post is d last one 2comment on bizarre costumes…aka druids etc 
love the ice bucket hat!!
Ok lads, I’ve discovered something..
When I zoomed in with my zoominator 3000, I noticed the chair is actually circa 2006
The photo is of Uilliam taken only a few short months ago, somewhere in Vienna…
Now we know what he’s been up to…
hey, ya know..that’s showbiz for ya! 
Glad I don’t have to wear that outfit for my Celtic Woman shows!
But don’t give them any ideas… LOL
Tommy
Whoops, sorry, already wrote CW management. After your all-too-brief stint as Elvis, this seemed a natural. And you’d look so fetching in that wee cap.