THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 14. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1840. | Volume I. |
PADDY CONEELY, THE GALWAY PIPER.
We need hardly have acquainted our Irish readers that in theprefixed sketch, which our admirable friend the Burton hasmade for us, they are presented with the genuine portrait of apiper, and an Irish piper too—for the face of the man, andthe instrument on which he is playing, are equally nationaland characteristic—both genuine Irish: in that well-proportionedoval countenance, so expressive of good sense, gentleness,and kindly sentiments, we have a good example of aform of face very commonly found among the peasantry of thewest and south of Ireland—a form of face which Spurzheimdistinguished as the true Phœnician physiognomy, and whichat all events marks with certainty a race of southern orSemitic origin, and quite distinct from the Scythic or northernIndo-European race so numerous in Ireland, and characterizedby their lighter hair and rounder faces. And as to thebagpipes, they are of the most approved Irish kind, beautifullyfinished, and the very instrument made for Crump, thegreatest of all the Munster pipers, or, we might say, Irish ofmodern times, and from which he drew his singularly deliciousmusic. Musical reader! do not laugh at the epithet wehave applied to the sounds of the bagpipe: the music ofCrump, which we have often heard from himself on these verypipes, was truly delicious even to the most refined musical ears.These pipes after Crump’s death were saved as a nationalrelic by our friend the worthy and patriotic historian of Galway—needwe say, James Hardiman—who, in his characteristicspirit of generosity and kindness, presented them to their presentpossessor, as a person likely to take good care of them,and not incompetent to do justice to their powers; and thegift was nobly and well bestowed! Yet, truth to tell, PaddyConeely is not to be compared with John Crump, who, accordingto the recollections of him which cling to our memory,[Pg 106]was a Paganini in his way—a man never to be rivalled—andwho produced effects on his instrument previously unthoughtof, and which could not be expected. Paddy is simply anexcellent Irish piper—inimitable as a performer of Irish jigsand reels, with all their characteristic fire and buoyantgaiety of spirit—admirable indeed as a player of the musiccomposed for and adapted to the instrument; but in his performanceof the plaintive or sentimental melodies of his country,he is not able, as Crump was, to conquer its imperfections:he plays them not as they are sung, but—like a piper.
Yet we do not think this want of power attributable to anydeficiency of feeling or genius in Paddy—far indeed from it:—heis a creature of genuine musical soul; but he has had no opportunitiesof hearing any great performer, like that one to whomwe have alluded, or of otherwise improving, to any considerableextent, his musical education generally: the best of hispredecessors whom he has heard he can imitate and rival successfully;but still Paddy is merely an Irish piper—the piperof Galway par excellence: for in every great town in the westand south of Ireland there is always one musician of thiskind more eminent than the rest, with whose name is justlyjoined as a cognomen the name of his locality.
But we are not going to write an arti