Irish Boston History & Heritage

  On November 7, 1915, the Boston Pipers Club met in Seaver Hall in the Paine Memorial Building on Appleton Street in the South End to initiate seven new members into the Club, according to a story in the Boston Globe the following day. The Club also discussed a trip to New York to participate in the 10th anniversary of that city's Pipers Club. According to the story, the Pipers Club would leave Boston on the midnight train on November 25, with piper William Hanafin leading the delegation. The Boston Pipers Club was initiated in 1910 and held its first concert at Wells Memorial Hall on January 11, featuring William Hanafin and his brother Michael on fiddle. In the audience were uilleann pipers Patsy Touhey and Sergeant James Early from Chicago. Courtesy of Burns Library, Boston College William F. Hanafin (1875-1924) and his brother Michael C. Hanafin (1880-1970) were born in Callinfercy, County Kerry, Ireland according to the Burns Library at Boston College, which holds the Hanafin...

Piper Patsy Brown A Boston Globe feature story called "Mystery of the Bagpipes" by Virginia Bright , published on January 3, 1954, gives insight into greater Boston's Irish and Scottish musical environment during that decade. The first part of the story focuses on the challenge of organizing Scottish pipe bands in the region, finding the right instruments and practice sets, not to mention the bass drums and kilts.   Frederick Colvin of Burlington, formerly of Belfast, conveyed his efforts to start a band.  It took him a year to find an instructor, Archibald MacLeod of Malden, pipe major for the Caledonian Band.  Scottish-American activities were on the decline in 1950s Boston.  The Boston Caledonian Club, in existence since the 1850s, held its last Highland Games Festival in 1956, according to writer Emily Ann Donaldson in her book, The Scottish Highland Games in America.     The Globe story then turns to what it calls 'the Irish bagp...

Photo courtesy of Lives of the Pipers The first concert of the newly-formed Irish Pipers' Club of Boston was held at Wells Memorial Hall on Tuesday, January 11, 1910, part of a cultural explosion of Irish music, dance, language and arts taking place in Boston in the early 20th century.     The concert was significant for Irish music historians because it included notable uilleann piper  William Hanafin  and John Nolan.  And guests in the audience were identified as Sergeant James Early of the Irish Music Club of Chicago and  Patsy Touhey , who was born in Galway and grew up in South Boston. Touhey was considered by many to be the finest piper of his generation. Other performers at the concert included Michael Hanafin - William's brother - on the fiddle, singer Peter O'Neill, Irish step dancer James Cahill and the Irish Choral Society, led by director Charles F. Forrester, according to the Republic Newspaper, an Irish Catholic paper  owne...

Patsy Touhey  "The first concert of the Irish Pipers' Club of Boston was held in Wells Memorial Hall on Tuesday, January 11, 1910," according to The Republic Newspaper published on January 15, 1910. The hall was located at 978 Washington Street in Boston's South End, then a heavily Irish neighborhood.   The concert was significant for Irish music historians because it included notable uilleann pipers Michael and William Hanafin and John Nolan.  And guests in the audience were identified as Sergeant James Early of the Irish Music Club of Chicago and Patsy Touhey , who was born in Galway and grew up in South Boston. Touhey was considered by many to be the finest piper of his generation. Other performers included singer Peter O'Neill, Irish step dancer James Cahill and the Irish Choral Society, led by director Charles F. Forrester. The Republic Newspaper was owned by John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the grandfather of President John F. Kenn...

The week of October 12, 1914 Chicago-born uilleann piper Charles Mack played at B.F. Keith’s Vaudeville Theatre in Boston with his musical revue, “Come Back to Erin. ”  He was joined by his co-star and wife Etta Bastedo, who was from Worcester , Massachusetts . Reviewing the show, The Boston Globe wrote that Etta “won favor in Celtic songs,” while Charles “contributed pleasing selections on a kind of bagpipe.” In an earlier 1912 review, the Globe said that Mack and company “give a fresh and wholesome sketch that combines pathos and Celtic humor most appealingly.” Mack was the son of Michael Charles McNurney, who emigrated from Ireland to Chicago in 1850.  McNurney and Sargeant James Early were pupils of uilleann piper James Quinn in Chicago .  Musicologist  Francis O’Neill, in his book Irish Minstrels and Musicians , described McNurney as “a wealthy horseshoer and alderman, who was himself an enthusiastic dilettante on the pipes.” ...