The set of uilleann pipes belonging to Galway’s signatory of the 1916 Proclamation, Eamonn Ceannt, will be returning west next month as part of the Ballina Salmon Festival in Co Mayo.
Ceannt’s pipes will be transported from their current home in the Curragh Camp Military Museum in Co Kildare, to their new home at the Jackie Clarke Collection after the festival’s 60th anniversary celebrations which run from July 9 to July 11.
Clarke, originally from Ballymoe in north Co Galway, was executed by British military authorities in May 1916, when identified as a leader of the Rising. His legacy lives on in Galway with the city’s main train and bus station named after him. It is thought that the last time Ceannt played his pipes was only a few weeks before his death, on St Patrick’s Day 1916.
Piper Eamonn Walsh will play Ceannt’s pipes, which date back to 1845, to lead a special performance on Heritage Day, July 10, in Ballina.
Born Edward Kent in Galway in 1881, Ceannt was devoted to Irish language, music and dance, and in 1900 joined the Gaelic League. He became a fluent Irish speaker, and changed his name to the Irish format when training as a language teacher.
He was a noted musician and Uilleann Piper. Ceannt won a gold medal at the Oireachtas na Gaeilge in 1906 and received a papal blessing for his performance in Rome with members of the Catholic Young Men’s Society, participating in an athletics competition to celebrate the jubilee of Pope Pius X in 1908.
He founded the Dublin Pipers Club in 1900 which ultimately laid the seed for the formation of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and Na Piobairi Uilleann.
The Jackie Clarke Collection invites Galwegians to view his signature on the original 1916 proclamation as well as three dispatches he wrote during Easter week 1916 when he was commandant of South Dublin Union garrison which saw hand-to-hand fighting during the Easter Rising in April 1916.
