MICHAEL KEENAN OF SHERCOCK, 1895-1979

[paul roberts]

I am writing a small piece on piper and pipe maker, Michael Keenan (he prefered Miceal O Cianain) of Glasleac, Shercock, Co Cavan….lived 1895-1979.

Though now almost totally forgotten, it seems that in his time he was quite a well known piper (UP and IWP) in Ireland, and an active member of both CCE and NPU. And as a maker he offered a pretty full range of British Isles pipes…indeed, as late as the mid 1960s he was still offering both Brian Boru and “Scotch Lowland” Pipes…..possibly the only maker doing so at that time.

Anyone here remember him? Or have any information about him? Anyone own/played/seen any of his pipes?

OK, bit of a long shot, but you never know……

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I've a tape of Longford piper Jimmy Dolan in the mid 70s where the recordist, Canadian piper Barry O'Neill, keeps asking him to "play something you learned from Keenan." Barry also comments on some of Jimmy's ornaments (learned from Keenan) being warpipish in nature.

Dunno about who kept on making Brian Borus or Border/Half Long pipes. I know Crowley and O'Meally made the former, and who knows but the big Scottish firms may have cranked them out as well - I'd check bobdunsire.com for an answer. I know someone - likely Colin Ross was the first - was making Half Longs again in the 70s. (Half Longs are the same instrument as the Border pipes but with Northumbrian type drone tuning, DGD or something like that). pipe page28

[patsky]

I was in touch, VIA mail, with Michael Keenan around 1973 and made several sets of reeds for him. Somewhere I might have one or two of his letters. We wrote back and fourth and he was still making pipes at that time. There was a fellow in Rhode Island who had a set of his pipes They ware rather large and clunky based on the Taylor style.
I never heard Michael play.


Pat Sky

[leaky_joe]

Yes I remember him with great affection.

I was apprenticed to him in 1976 and lived with him for a while. Somewhere I should still have an old cassette tape of him playing and singing and some pictures if I can find them.

At the time I was there, he was still actively making pipes and riding his bike - although he was told to stop after he fell off a couple of times.

His pipes were quite taylor-ish and the regulators were a bit bulky, being square and not turned except for the ends but the chanters were quite slim with dimples over the finger holes making then extremely comfortable to play.

He told me tales of playing his pipes all over the world including the USA and apparently he was quite a ladies man when he was younger. He showed me some old photos of him playing surrounded by some rather attractive young women.

He also played the mandolin quite well and had some great stories and songs, my favourite being The Maid of County Down

He wrote to me just before he died, but I was unable to get to see him in time as I was in the UK looking after my sick mother, much to my regret.

[Kinry]

leaky joe: is there any chance of digitising the tapes you have? It seems a shame that they are not available to other pipers. There seems to be a lot of these recordings of older pipers from the mid 20th century in private hands that never get heard. They are a great link to the piping of the past, but don't get heard much.

[leaky_joe]

If i can find the tape I will certainly do so. However i will have to find it first , I haven't seen it for some years now, but I will look

[paul roberts]

Thanks guys, this is great, please keep it coming!

I play Border Pipes myself so I am particularly interested in Michael’s “Scotch Lowland Pipe” (one of the of many names for my instrument). That he was making this instrument and using this name in 1966 (and almost certainly earlier) is actually very unusual.

Though the instrument in its basic modern configuration dates back to at least the late 17th century, the name “Lowland Pipe” seems to have been invented by scholars in the late 18th century. The name had wide currency till about the 1840s-50s, by which time the old Lowland tradition seems to have been fairly thoroughly absorbed into a pan-Scottish GHB based piping culture. Pipe makers carried on making the instrument but now they used other names, usually “Reel Pipe”. People kept playing it too, but it seems to have been mostly people whose primary instrument was now the GHB.

These “Reel pipes” disappear from makers lists about 1900. As far as I can tell the only people to actually make the instrument between then and the 1970s/80s revival are P/M Robertson in Edinburgh, (from about 1925-35 only) and Michael.

Another oddity is that he marketed them as “Lowland Pipes”. P/M Robertson didn’t call them Lowland pipes, he called them Northumbrian Half-longs because he was making them for a specifically Northumbrian revival and basing them on an old Northumbrian set. From about the 1910s and 20s antiquarians and musicologists, who are starting to start to take an interest in pipes and piping history, do re-assert the name “Lowland pipe”, but they are talking about historic instruments. Some - like Charlton, Askew and Cocks in the NPS - are aware the LP and NHL are basically the same thing, but they don’t generally use the LP name for modern instruments.

Now Michael will have seen Robertson Half-Longs because his friend William Clarke of Ballybay was a regular vistor to the Bellingham show in Northumberland and owned a Robertson set…but to him they were of course Northumbrian Half-Longs. So whilst its not so surprising that Michael knew of the instrument, it is surprising that he used the old “Lowland pipes” name.

Moreover - who was the market? How long did he make them for? And has anyone seen any of his Lowland Pipes? The questions are endless!

[paul roberts]

Joe, add me to the list of those who'd love to hear your tape of Michael's playing!

It's sad he seems so forgotten - in his time he was clearly well known and respected as both piper and maker. This is his obituaryfrom Treoir 1979

Michael 0 Cianain of Glassleck, ShercocK
Co. Cavan, who has died, aged 84, was
one of the oldest and best-known makers
of Uilleann and other Irish bagpipes in
the country. He was also a well-known
bagpipe player and he exported his pipes
to Australia, the United States and
Britain.
He also taught enthusiasts from
Germany, France, Britain, as well as
Ireland how to play the Uilleann pipes
and he gave his last demonstration of
pipe playing at Cavan Trades Fair at
Christmas. A leading member . of
Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, he played
on RTE television and radio on numerous
occasions.


(BTW, I'm not far from you, near Halifax)

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Paul - I notice to my delight/surprise that you can apparently download certain old copies of Treoir at the Comhaltas Archivenow. Searching for 'Michael Keenan' yields nothing, but six issues show up for "Michael 0 Cianain." He's not in the 1st but his brief obit is in TRE-1978-2 and a much more detailed profile is in TRE-1978-3.

[paul roberts]

that's a great link Kevin - many thanks. I had a copy of the mini-obit but that source stated it was from Treoir 1979...I see now it was 1978. And the full obituary is brilliant, fills in a lot of gaps.

[ballyblack]

1911 Ireland census

Michael Keenan, GLASLECK

Residents of house number 11 in Glasleck (Taghart, Cavan)

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... 001699992/