A chara, – Further to Frank McNally's acknowledgement of the progress of Na Piobairí Uilleann (An Irishman's Diary, September 24th), he is not quite correct in his analysis of the dramatic change in the fortunes of "piper hibernicus".
On June 8th, 1900, the Dublin Pipers’ Club was founded. Two pipers who helped to set up the first meeting and who both worked in Dublin Corporation were Eamonn Ceannt and Pat Nally. Pat Nally, pipemaker and acknowledged expert piper, is said to have chaired the first meeting. Nally also wrote a tutor for the pipes. Ceannt, of 1916 fame, who received his first lessons on the pipes from Nally, was years later to entertain Pope Pius X in Rome. Another piper of note at that time was Tom Rowsome.
Pat Nally was a Gaelic scholar, a member of the Gaelic League when it was set up in 1893, and a founder member of the Celtic Literary Society. Nally was known to entertain Gaelic League members with tunes from his pipes at their meetings whose attendance would have included PH Pearse and Douglas Hyde. Along with Eoin MacNeill and Edward Martyn, the philanthropic landowner, he attended the “Mod” in Oban, Scotland, in 1898. This was the great Scottish Gaelic festival. Nally, representing the Gaelic League, was given a rousing reception when he played Irish airs on his uilleann pipes. The festival was attended by 3,000 Scotch Gaelic delegates from Scotland and beyond.
The Píob Mhór – bagpipes or war pipes – were part of the Irish landscape several hundred years before the uilleann pipes were in use. Pat Nally was also considered the foremost authority on the war pipes at that time, and he attended the annual Oireachtas cultural festivals as an authority on Irish dance.
In the late 18th and early 19th century, Nally was undoubtedly an inspirational figure in the cultural life of Dublin, as was his brother Tom Nally (playwright of Spancil of Death fame). His first cousin with the same name was the martyred patriot PW Nally, after whom the Nally Stand in Croke Park was called.
Pat Nally died in 1911 at the early age of 43 years at his home in Dublin. His colleague Eamonn Ceannt was shot in Kilmainham Jail in 1916.
Now in my more mature years and as a former bagpiper of over 20 years – whose father played the pipes for over 40 years and with an uilleann piper son – I am very conscious of those who played important roles in the musical and cultural life of our country. – Is mise,
GERARD MANNERS,
Sycamore Drive,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.