hills

Obituary in the Galway Observer - Saturday 02 July 1904

DEATH OF MARTIN REILLY, THE GREAT IRISH PIPER.
During, the past week,a well known figure in Galway has passed away in the person of Martin Reilly, the great Irish piper. He had attained the age of 74 and always enjoyed the best of health until just one day before he died. His loss will be deplored by lovers of Irish pipe music the world over, as he was acknowledged by those qualified to judge to be the best piper alive in his time. Whenever he used to visit Dublin, Belfast, Limerick, or Waterford, crowds used to gather to hear him, and in one place he played lately, some four or five hundred people had to remain outside, who could not gain admission, such was the crush to hear Martin, He had a respectable funeral on last Sunday, people coming as far as Dublin to it to show their respect and esteem for the great musician and good man who had passed away. The last prayers were said at the graveside by the Rev. Father Considine and Davis. May he rest in peace.

Dublin Evening Telegraph - Saturday 2 July 1904, during the period before newspapers could reproduce photographs (or it was too much bother), but could print pictures based on photographs. I think it involved wood engravings

"MARTIN O’REILLY

A typical blind piper belonged in the city of Galway, where he kept a dance house for some years. Emigration, decline of public interest, and other causes ruined a once profitable patronage. Sightless and old and unable to make a living by other means than music, he was obliged, like many another unfortunate Irish minstrel, to take refuge in the poorhouse as his only escape from starvation.

However, his reputation as a fine piper survived his inhumation in this grave of hope and ambition. So when the Gaelic League undertook to revive an interest in native music and language, O’Reilly was taken out by some enthu- siasts and conveyed to Dublin, where, out of practice and all as he was for years, he gained distinction by winning first prize in the pipers’ competition at the annual Feis in 1901.

A Dublin newspaper, describing the Pipers’ Festival in the “Large Concert Hall of the Rotunda,” has the following: “A notable incident was the playing of Mr. Martin O’Reilly, who played a selection entitled “The Battle of Aughrim,” descriptive of the advance, the trumpets of the British, the battle onslaught of the Irish soldiers, and the wail of the women. Aughrim was of course a lost field, but, nothing daunted, the gallant old piper, throbbing with a spirit that might long to play his countrymen into battle, fired them with a stirring and strident version of the victorious march of Brian Boru.” He played in perfect tune and produced marvelous tones on his instrument.

The famous Galway piper was the central figure at several entertainments at various cities for some time thereafter. At the Belfast Harp Festival in 1903 he was the hero of the occasion, his favorite pieces being “The Fox Chase” and “The Battle of Aughrim.” “The wonderful old man,” says one press report, “played the ancient airs with such a feeling expression and profound understand- ing of their suggestions and meanings that he simply took the house by storm.

Later he played for the dancers.”

A half-tone picture of this now celebrated piper from a photograph by Father Fielding in Dnblin was inserted as a frontispieee in O’Neill’s Dance Musir of Ireland in 1907.

It is humiliating to relate that when the excitement subsided, instead of providing suitably for this grand old traditional musician, or establishing him in a way to teach his precious art, we find him back again in the Gort poorhouse: in which ignoble institution he has since died.

And when we come to consider the heartless indifference of the people towards Martin O’Reilly and his talents, can we be blamed if we sometimes question the sincerity of the agitators who have talked themselves hoarse in their advocacy of a regenerated Ireland?

As an object lesson, the ease of Martin O’Reil1y serves well to remind us that a vast gulf still separates theories from practical methods in Ireland.

Suck Diesel Wonderful background here, thank you. When you have a moment, could you add where it's from, or a link, please?

Hill's Dublin Studio. Bicycles and photographs - a dream combination. Galway Observer - Saturday 19 April 1902


Probably lacking a movable boudoir.

nla.gov.au/nla.obj-460114541/view?sectionId=nla.obj-48016... - 'Death of a Slum', Pix, 20th May, 1950...

nla.gov.au/nla.obj-460114541/view?sectionId=nla.obj-48016... - 'Death of a Slum', Pix, 20th May, 1950...