The O'Bryne DeWitt Family's Irish Music Legacy in New York and Boston

Photos Courtesy of The Music of Skuabh Luachra

Ellen O'Byrne DeWitt (1875-1926), an Irish immigrant from Cloontumper, Co. Leitrim,  emigrated to New York City as a teenager and in her 20s, she opened an Irish music record shop that flourished for more than half a century in New York City and Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.

Ellen and her husband, Dutch immigrant Justus DeWitt, had two sons, Justus Jr. (1899-1983) and James (b.1902).  They ran a small travel company for several years before Ellen decided to open the small Irish music shop at 1398 Third Avenue near 79th Street.  

With the swift rise of the recording industry in the early 20th century, Ellen was among the first to recognize that the burgeoning Irish immigrant population would always be looking out for music from back home, and she convinced several record companies such as Columbia, Victor and Decca Records to add Irish artists to their catalogs. Eventually the company began seeking out New York-based immigrants to make records with these labels, including fiddlers Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran and flutist John McKenna.

In 1923, a New York story written by Josephine van Der Grift for the Newspaper Enterprise Association profiled Ellen, calling her "New York's thriftiest woman," and recounting how she turned a $100 investment in renting the shop into an enterprise worth $200,000. The story was picked up nationally and ran in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Ellen was even asked by the reporter to give advice for 'getting ahead' to her readers, which she shared:

A few months before her death in December 1926, the family opened a new store called E. O'Bryne Dewitt's Sons: House of Irish Music, at 51 Warren Street in Dudley Square, Roxbury. The store was to be run by her son, Justus, while the New York store was run by her son James.

The Boston shop was right in the heart of Dudley Square, a teeming, ethnic enclave of immigrants that boasted several dance halls. The main one was Hibernian Hall, which opened in October 1913 and had quickly become the headquarters for Irish music, dance and socializing in greater Boston. Other dance halls in the neighborhoods included Winslow Hall, the Dudley Opera House, Rose Croix Hall and InterContinental Hall, which was popular among families from Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.

After World War II ended, with Irish-American veterans returning home and a surge of new Irish immigrants arriving in Boston, the demand for Irish music recordings and live music was greater than ever.  In response, Justus started a new record label in Boston called Copley Records, a local reference to Copley Square in Boston's Back Bay, named for portrait painter John Singleton Copley the son of Irish immigrant.  

Just as Copley Records began to take flight in post-war America, the recording industry was transferring from 78 records to 45s and LPs, according to author Roxanne M. O'Connell. She notes that while the larger companies made long-playing LPs catering to mainstream audiences, "it was the smaller regional companies that made up the bulk of new Irish recordings. New labels such as Copley, Avoca and Dublin Records were launched and flourished by catering to the rapidly growing and immensely popular dance hall craze."

Under the Copley label, Justus began recording Boston-based Irish musicians such as Roxbury native Joe Derrane on button accordion, and fiddler Paddy Cronin from Kerry.  Other local stars included flutist Frank Neylon from Clare and accordionists Jerry O'Brien, Johnny Powell, Martin Flaherty and Matty Toohy.  From New York,  Copley Records distributed Decca recording artists such as Micky and Mary Carlton, singer Ruthie Morrissey and the famous McNulty Family Band.  See Copley Records discography.

Justus was credited with discovering Connie Foley from Tralee, County Kerry, who was living in Worcester MA and singing sporadically on the radio and in small bands.  Boston correspondent Dan Horgan of the Irish World writes that Justus "had Connie cut a few records of some old Irish songs which had been well known in Ireland but had never been recorded.  These were songs that the Irish people sang at home, passed along from generation to generation."

When O'Byrne DeWitt visited Ireland, he shared the records with Kathleen Evens, librarian of records at Radio Eire. "I asked her if she would play a few on their record hour," O'Byrne DeWitt said in the article. "She did, and it was like an explosion. They got calls to buy records from all over Ireland....We made an arrangement with Gramophone Company of Ireland to put the records out under their label, and Connie Foley has become a household name in Ireland."  The story was later picked up by Newsweek Magazine. 

Like his mother in New York, Justus established a multi-faceted enterprise in Roxbury. All the while he was making and distributing Irish recordings, he ran a successful travel agency out of the store that booked group tours and individual visits to Ireland. In the early days he worked with TWA and Pan Am, and later with Aer Lingus when it established a Boston-Shannon route in 1958.  One of the group tour leaders was Michael Cummings, a renaisance man who was a GAA champion, set dance instructor and expert on the music of impresario Patrick S. Gilmore.  

Justus also had an Irish Hour radio show twice a week on WESX in Salem, MA, that essentially played the new 45s the he was selling in his shop. In addition, O'Byrne DeWitt supported numerous other Irish radio programs on air at the time, run by well-known local personalities such as Joe O'Leary and the Irish Minstrels and Tommy Shields.

The demise of the Dudley Street scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s scattered many of the Irish-owned businesses out of the area, as the dance halls went vacant and were boarded up. O'Bryne DeWitt moved his travel agency about a mile up the road to 1576 Tremont Street in Roxbury, between Mission Church and Brigham Circle.  He later moved the travel agency to West Roxbury. 

Justus died on 26 January 1983, in Norwood, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 84, and is buried in Weston, MA.

Ellen, along and her husband Justus DeWitt and their two sons, Justus and James, left a legacy of Irish music recordings that have influenced generations of musicians.

Research, Text & Images, Michael Quinlin