Snapshots from a gathering at the home of Dave Page in Chicago in 1972, courtesy of John Tuohy.
Shown here are (L to R) Joe Shannon, Tommy McCarthy, Tom McMahon, Eamonn La Pointe Rynne and Dave Page.
Dave and Joe:
Joe and Tommy:
There were four other pipers also present but not photographed, including Kevin Henry, Barry O’Neill, and Pat Brankin.
Edited to correct the date.
Great pictures… Just brings a smile to my face 
Thanks for these Photos! Mr. “Jumper” and John!
Eamon LaPoint lives in Ireland and calls up Ted Anderson from time to time.
I used to see Tommy McCarthy at a pub in Fulham Broadway in London(circa 1972).
Tommy played Concertina and Pipes, and I caught up with him in Boston (circa 1997) just before he passed away.
That one photo of him, really took me back to my time in London, and the music of those days!
Dave Page and Joe Shannon… what a combination that must have been!
Thanks for renewing my memories of these Pipers!
Sean Folsom
I think that was taken at Tom McMahon’s home. The exact year would be the year Tommy McCarthy traveled over on the Comhaltas tour.
Tom was the one that identified the location as Dave Page’s home. Did you get a chance to meet Dave, or was this before you took up the pipes?
Pat Brankin now appears to be a Monsignor in Oklahoma. I wonder if he still plays.
I heard from Tommy Keane (Tommy McCarthy’s son-in-law) this morning, and he says the photos were taken in 1972.
In regard to the Pipes in these photos, I forgot to point out that every Piper, EXCEPT Joe Shannon, are shown playing Kennedy’s Irish Pipes. In the late 60’s and early 1970s,
Moss Kennedy, and his son, Alf, were the ONLY people supplying practice, 1/2, and full sets of Irish Pipes, to the very few people that knew this kind of Pipe existed, and/or wanted to buy them. As has been said before, the pitch of these Cork City (Montenotte Park) Pipes were in E flat, and sometime around 1969, Moss developed his A =440 “D” chanters. This particular bit of knowledge came to me from Pat Cotter (RIP) of San Francisco. In 1973, Pat told me that the year 1969, was when Pat ordered and received a second, concert “D” chanter, for his E flat set made by the Kennedys.
Pat kept his set in E flat to play with his brother Dan (Dan now has both sets), and Pat would merely plug in the D chanter, and move his drones down to D, to play with other musicians in that key. So with these photos, I think you have a good visual record to refer to, when I.D. ing this “Make” of Irish Pipes.
All the Best Sean Folsom
I keep drooling over the photos of Joe Shannon’s Taylor set, what a beauty! He must’ve been proud to have owned such a Classic Taylor set.
It was pointed out to me by Tommy Keane, who now owns the set, that the pipes Tommy McCarthy is playing were made for him by Leo Rowsome in about 1950, at about the time he moved to London. These would be the ones you saw him playing in the early '70s.
Tom McMahon’s practice set looks like it’s probably a Kennedy, but Eamonn La Pointe’s set does not look like Kennedy’s work to me. It has a wooden windcap, looks like brass next to Dave’s silver, the mounts are much simpler, and the bass drone is quite different. A detail:
Here’s a good look at Dave’s Kennedy set:
I started in 1976 and I think Dave Page had moved out West. LaPointe’s set is Kennedy with some work done by Robbie Hughes who added a reg on (I think the tenor) and probably the bass drone slide.
Tom McMahon’s practice set is likely Pat Hennelly. The bellows definitely has the formica top. At the time he passed away, Hennelly was working on a set for Tom.
OK OK Tommy McCarthy’s set in the photo IS a Rowsome, but I SEEM to remember him playing a Kennedy set at Fulham Broadway, a brand new set and shinning, with that silver-plated brass, and that particular GREEN VEVET bagcover, that the Kennedys had some “lady around the corner” make for them. Seems that the Rowsome set has one of “THOSE” bag covers, (and maybe one of “THOSE” pink rubber hot water bottle bags as well?) So… forgive me for reading a set by it’s cover !!!
Mr.Jumper! while you’re in constant communication with Tommy Keane, you (or he) can please enlighten me on that memory of the “McCarthy” Kennedy set. It would NOT be the 1st time that I have a false memory of things, going 34 years back in the past.
The set I barrowed from the Brosnans (1973-75) was made in 1959, and a little different from Dave Page’s Kennedy Pipes (made in the mid 1950s?), as with all things hand made, there’s always a few minor variations. F’instance,the Bass Drone “Sound Box” on the “Brosnan set” had that Catalin (coal tar derived plastic) imitation Ivory on TOP of the metal disc (like Finbar Furey’s set), instead of an all metal one on Dave Page’s set. The ENDS of the regulator tuning rush PINS were those big discs seem to be a constant feature, either out of Catalin, OR Ivory (Dennis Brook’s set). That little decorative chanter top ivory was another “Kennedy” constant, which is blurry in the photo of LaPointe, so I jumped to a conclusion there.
Thanks for posting a good photo of Dave’s set with this whole subject heading, as I spent SO MANY hours, winding a Kennedy set…“WOOSH>>>” Scree-Scraw.. Wheen…Blaap Blapp Boop (the regs)
I have a soft spot for those Pipes of the “Kennedy” Marque. Sean Folsom
Eamonn LaPointe Rynne does call on me for reed cane now and then. He sent me some photos of a UP body he wants to sell. I will forward them to Pat d’Arcy for inclusion in the “pipes-for-sale” page. This is a brass, ebony and mammoth ivory body in D. It was made by a number of makers, including a Chas. Roberts extended bass regulator, D. M. Quinn bass drone, another regulator made by Tim Britton etc. etc.. The ivory work was all done by one maker, which ties the different makers styles together, so it looks like one maker. Certainly a “one-off” set, with no bellows or chanter. Upgrade your practice set now… Will post more later. Anyone wanting to enquire about it should pm me or send me an email.
Ted
Dave Page’s Kennedy chanter is sharp of concert pitch, as sean an piobaire says the early Kennedy (and Crowley, whose tools they had) sets were. John Tuohy plays a mid-'80s Quinn chanter with that set now.
A passel of Kennedy of Cork info is here.
I turned up a recent photo of Eamonn La Pointe Rynne in the NPU archives, playing (according to the index entry) a Quinn C set:
So the date is a Sunday in October, 1972. There was a tape recorder there - any sign of the tape (I had never heard it). I think that is a picture of Bert (standing with banjo) and Tom McMahon on the wall.
Yeah Mr.Jumper I now recall writting that 2005 “Update”, on your 2003 posting on Kennedy sets, that you had there, and that’s a very good photo of P.M. John Rosenburger’s (RIP) set, with the Catalin Top on the Bass Drone soundbox, just like the Brosnan Kennedy set. You can really compare and contrast that set with Dave Page’s set. YET Another distinct memory surfaces, as it often does, totaly unbidden: I have to include Dennis Brook’s comments about the Plus(es) and Minus (es) of his 1957 Kennedy set…after one terrible afternoon, in fall of 1974, where the Dan Sullivan chanter reed had taken a dump, and Dennis had taken the chanter out of its chanter top, and had broken the reed against the top of his coffee table, in a quick downward jab…“All I got from the Kennedys, was a good set of DRONES, the chanter is trouble, the Regulators are trouble, and I’d like to stuff skyrockets into the regulators and launch it to the MOON…OR lay these Pipes in the street, and roll back and forth over them with my car!”…I said, “Lets see if you improved the reed on the G (in the middle of the scale)”. So Dennis calmly plugged the chanter back in AND LO! the G was much more in tune… but the rest of the scale wasn’t there, AT ALL! JUST …“Scree-Scraw, Reep!!!” Sean Folsom
Thanks for looking up the date. Tom had a cassette recorder then, so maybe he has the tape.
I think that is a picture of Bert (standing with banjo) and Tom McMahon on the wall.
I was wondering that myself, but don’t have enough detail to tell for sure. It could be Dave and Bert. In any case, here’s the three of them, this one from 1968:
That’s a great photo.
This just gets better and better! SF
I always enjoy all the history and nostalgia that comes up on this board.
Joe must have had quite the arm to be able to feed that beautiful beast of his (just to clarify, I mean the Tayler set). As well as the patience to get all those reeds in tune.
Well, the reeds in those small regulators only control two holes at the most, so tuning’d be a bit of a no-brainer.
Does that mean they are a double bore reg?? Or are you talking about that stuby regulator off the side?
Inquiring minds, etc