True story Of "Feadan" the first Irish made whistl

[patsky]

Hello whistlers.
I though you might be interested in the history of the "Feadan" Irish whistle, the first ever whistle made in Ireland. So here goes.


Back in the early 1970’s I got the idea to go to Ireland to manufacture penny whistles. Up until that time the Generation and The Clark whistles were the only ones on the market. Both of these whistles were made in England. I thought since 90 % of music played on these whistles was Irish music why not make a whistle in Ireland and stamp it Irish made.

As to the whistle... I wanted to make a whistle with a mouth piece that could be slid up and down for tuning. I also had the body made of nickel silver. The result was a fairly nice whistle with a green mouth piece that was made entirely in Ireland.

The first year of manufacture went fairly well, selling quite a few thousands of whistles, until my partner a fellow named Kevin Malvey decided that he wanted to take over the company. There were law suits and I finally won, but it was too late and the company was bankrupt.

I then sold the machinery to Michale White of Ennis and he started making the “Clare” whistle. At the time I invented the pocket whistle, which could be broken down into two parts making it easy to carry around; I have the original designs and prototypes of the whistle somewhere in my closet. Originally I contracted the pocket whistle to the Clare Whistle company.


Later that year we left Ireland and I guess Michael White sold the Clare whistle company to the “Eagle” whistle company run by David LeBas Manufacturing.

Needless to say I never did make any money on either the Feadan or the Pocket whistle. But it did allow me to spend a few years in Ireland and play a lot of good music.

All the best,
Pat Sky

[Cayden]

Story

[RonKiley]

I have one and it is a very nice whistle. The Clare is not as good. I don't know why.

But my Feadan was the first whistle I bought. I got it in about 1980 or 1981 in an Irish shop in Newport Rhode Island.

[bud]

Ron, that Irish shop is where I bought my Walton's. Great little place, and every time I've been in there they have different stock of stuff. I once bought a book by Paddy Twomey (an autobiography with a ton of unusual tunes and songs in it); and last time I bought a pennywhistle book called The Piper's Chair, by the late Micho Russell, again with seldom encountered tunes.

Well, I live in Rhode Island, so it is high time I took my wife for a spree in Newport.