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Abigail’s Interview

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:31:08 +0000

Questions:
1. Where are you originally from?
a. Dublin City (1965)

2. How did you start playing the pipes?
a. I was brought to classes by my parents. They had a strong connection to many of the older musicians and my grandmother was a famous singer (Delia Murphy) whose recording career spanned the late 1930s to the mid 1960s. So my parents wanted us kids to have a bit of the action

3. Who was your biggest inspiration while learning how to play them?
a. My mother was my greatest influence and she saw me through most of the early years but my biggest hero was (and still is) the West Clare piper Willie Clancy

4. How long would you say you have been playing them for?
a. I’ve been playing since 1972

5. When you first started playing, what goals did you have as a musician? Do you feel like you have achieved those goals?
a. Being only 7, I was too young to have or understand big-persons’ goals. I did have short-term goals such as not having to wash the dishes or cut the grass if I practiced my pipes. It was only when I feel in love with the music that I had to do the dishes and cut the grass BEFORE I was allowed to play – my mother was way to smart for me

6. How long have you been performing in public for?
a. I played in competitions at the age of 8 and 9 but my first paid public performance was at the age of 11 in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin

7. What would you say motivates you in your music?
a. Personal gratification is a strong element in most of what I do musically. It just so happens that when I enjoy myself, this is infectious and my audiences also enjoy it. In a way, I am lucky that there isn’t much money to be made from playing traditional Irish music and my real fans know that and they just feel privileged that a musician would enjoy playing for them

8. Have you written any of your own pieces? If so, how have they been received by the general public?
a. Yes – although the body of extant melodies in our tradition is colossal, I sometimes compose new pieces, mostly slower melodies that have all been well received. They tend to be for projects (film, advertising, background music to documentaries etc.) and also tend to be in a more modern setting with accompaniment as opposed to my solo playing

9. Would you say your music is a good representation of the Irish traditional culture?
a. Yes, it is a good representation of recent culture. In the past, I might have sung more and danced. I’m very lucky that I am able to earn my living playing traditional Irish music without having to change what I do to suit the paymasters. In previous times, there were very few professional musicians and playing for money was generally frowned upon

10. How does collaboration with other artists (such as poets or other musicians) differ from playing solo? Do you feel like it enhances your own playing?
a. It requires much effort to develop the ‘end product’ but there is an extra satisfaction from working with others. The big difference is that when playing solo you are the boss and you run the show as you see fit but then again perhaps it can be lonely for some, up there on your own. Personally, I never feel alone, as the audience is right with me! Yes, collaboration informs one’s solo work – you would need to be emotionally dead for it not to

11. Is there anything else you do besides playing music? Has your musical career influenced this in any way?
a. I have fingers in many small pies, all connected to music: sound engineering, university teaching, providing music for wedding ceremonies, graphic design, photography, music publishing, web design. A little like the canny investor, I find that spreading myself thinly allows me to have a lovely life without being swallowed up by pride, greed and fear of tomorrow

12. Is there anything you wish to pass on to future generations? Any advice you would want to give to other aspiring musicians or artists in general?
a. So much advice to give and so little time (so few who might care…!) No, I believe strongly in listening (90% listening and 10% playing); practice isn’t the “be-all & end-all” of music – playing is where it’s at; if something isn’t good, be copped-on enough to realise, then fix it and carry on; technique is nothing but a crutch – the melody is the thing and smothering it in twiddley technique only pushes people away; be real – if you find life boring when you come back from a tour, there is something wrong with you and not your surroundings – you are probably starting to believe that twaddle you shouldn’t be peddling and you need to go up a hill or into a cave and sit for 40 years until you can behave yourself!

R. L. O'Mealy

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:02:41 +0000

I remember clearly my reaction to first hearing the music of Richard Lewis O’Mealy. The rich deep tone of his pipes was unlike anything I had heard before, as was the precision of his playing. I ran for a whistle and discovered that his pipes appeared to be in the key of A! I had heard of B flat pipes but never A; the speed of the playing felt normal so I didn’t question the pitch and it was to be many years before I realised that the tape had in fact been copied at the wrong speed and he was actually playing in C#. Looking up his entry in Francis O’Neill’s “Irish Minstrels and Musicians” only deepened
the mystery: either he had a higher-pitched set in the picture or else he was a very large man who belittled his massive set of A pipes. But these were minor details; my mind settled on ‘A’ and that was that regarding pitch.

O’Mealy was different to all pipers I had heard previously: he played music in an intricate but entertaining way; he wore knee britches and buckled shoes; he was in O’Neill’s “Irish Minstrels & Musicians” yet he had lived to be recorded as late as 1943.

I didn’t question the pitch of his pipes again until years later somebody mentioned that his pipes were in the key of C#; so the tape had indeed been slowed down to the point where the pipes appeared
to be down as low as A. This now added an element of the supernatural – here was the same man but now playing at an incredibly fast pace. I now knew that O’Mealy was quite an age (just short of his 69th birthday) when these pieces were recorded, making his musical acrobatics all the more amazing.

Speed, wit and perfection are good words to describe his music. His almost constant playing of the regulators never becomes boring or repetitive; indeed his accompaniment shows great humour in tandem with its inventiveness.

We have all seen sets of pipes with extra regulators, over and above the now-standard three, but Richard O’Mealy is the only piper (to the best of my knowledge) of whom we have recordings showing them being utilised to their fullest extent, and in such a manner as to entertain the novice and hardened aficionado alike.

Not only could O’Mealy play but he also made and repaired pipes. He furthered the instrument’s development using an educated mix of old and new knowledge. The mechanics and external appearance of his pipes are unmistakably modern but the bores are more in the style of the old classic makers rather than the new wide-bore modern approach. His pipes are not commonly seen nowadays but I will not be surprised if there is a huge resurgence of interest in his instruments in the coming years.

This volume of the Seán Reid Society Journal is the result of many months of investigation, excitement and fun which took place on computer screens worldwide throughout the year 2007, as a group of us met, talked and exchanged information about this most fascinating man, Richard Lewis O’Mealy. Our adventure began when Cambridge University professor Ross Anderson ran some internet searches on the subject of pipes. One of these, for the Westmeath piper Richard Lewis O’Mealy, led him to a set of photographs uploaded by Leslie Drew who turned out to be a great grand niece of O’Mealy living in Canada. She had placed the pictures on the net for general sharing with her family but also in case somebody might chance upon them while searching for her musical ancestor! Ross immediately contacted Leslie and alerted Wilbert Garvin and Ken McLeod, both of whom he knew had a special interest in R. L. O’Mealy. The next day, Ken copied the email to the distinguished historian Seán Donnelly, NPU archivist Terry Moylan, pipe- maker Robbie Hughes and pipers Jimmy O’Brien Moran and myself.

Over the following days, Ken expanded the list to include pipers Gay McKeon, Brian Vallely, Trevor Stewart and Robbie Hannan (Robbie was the presenter of a 1985 Long Note radio documentary on O’Mealy).

On the 17th of March 20073, emotional first contact with O’Mealy’s great grand niece Leslie Drew was made by Ken McLeod and the roller coaster ride began. Days later, Clement and Jonathan Farrar joined in – Clement and Jonathan are great grandsons of George Farrar Snr. who was married to R. L.’s sister Letitia. Through them we met their grandfather Sam Farrar, who had carried on the tradition of piping which has now continued down to Jonathan.

Emails flew back and forth, each one laden with new information in answer to questions raised by previous communications. The group shrunk back down in size and while we often included the others on important emails, we continued on with Leslie, Clement, Jonathan, Ken, Wilbert and myself with important findings appearing regularly also from Seán Donnelly. We began to amass quite a collection of photographs, newspaper clippings and letters; people revisited earlier research, often bringing old information back into play and new research was embarked upon. We had originally considered that an article might be written for the Seán Reid Society Journal Volume 3 but it soon became evident that Volume 3 would have to be devoted in its entirety to the music, life and times of Richard Lewis O’Mealy.

It is our intention that this internet issue of the journal will become the repository for all information gathered in the past and any still to be gathered in the future. Updates will be possible and moderated interaction with the public is encouraged.
Enjoy... http://www.seanreidsociety.org/index.html#v3

Seán Reid Society

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:57:23 +0000

The Seán Reid society is dedicated to the study of the Irish Union or Uilleann pipes: their music, history, and science. The Society is independent and non-commercial. The Journal's aim is to ensure that the knowledge we have attained since Seán Reid made the statement above is not lost, and that it is published for the use of all with an interest in this most remarkable and advanced musical instrument.

The Seán Reid Society official website serves as the primary home of the Seán Reid Society Journal, and a repository for news and information of interest to the Society, readers of the Journal, and other devotees of the Irish Union or Uilleann pipes.

The primary activity of the Society over the past ten years has been the publication of the Journal, which, although infrequent, has been successful and well-received. However the initial publication medium, CD-ROM, chosen to reduce costs and facilitate multimedia content, has not been without its downside. The physical process of disk duplication and distribution has been labor-intensive and at times prone to error, and the media themselves have proven to be less than archival. The upcoming publication of the Journal in print form by Na Píobairí Uilleann promises to improve this situation substantially, but does not address every concern.

As it was never the mission of the Society to make a profit, the decision was taken to make the Journal freely available in electronic form via the Internet. We foresee multiple benefits: it reduces both publication delay and distribution costs to near zero; it enables convenient public references to Journal content via hyperlinks; and hopefully encourages a wider audience to avail of the information which we seek not only to preserve, but to disseminate.

The website will initially serve primarily as the electronic publication portal for the Journal. Later plans include an online forum where specific Journal articles can be discussed, and an Archive where registered users can upload relevant content such as drawings, photographs, measurements, and other media.

Special thanks go to Liam McNulty for the lovely photo of Seán Reid that graces our home page.