October festival to honour Westmeath’s concertina pioneer William Mullally

By Noel Heduan

People from Clare may claim their county to be the home of concertina music but others believe it is a title to which Westmeath could lay claim.

It is unlikely there is anyone around to dispute that, but all that is known is that the concertina became popular in Westmeath from the mid-19th century and the first known recording was made by a Westmeath man, William J Mullally, in New York in 1926.

Ireland was a different place when Mullally’s father Joe and mother Anne (nee Mears) married and began rearing their family on a small farm in Milltown, Rathconrath. They were born during the Great Famine, when a quarter of the population of this country had either died of starvation, disease or were lucky enough to survive to emigrate.

Around the time William J was born, on February 5 1884, major changes were happening as tenant farmers rebelled against paying high rents to landlords and fought to own the land they worked.

Poet John Keegan Casey (Leo), who was also born in the parish of Milltown, died at the age of 24 on March 17 1870, shortly after his release from a harsh eight months in Mountjoy Prison for his opposition to the unfair treatment of starving families.

One of his best-known songs, The Rising of the Moon, was a call to his fellow Irishmen to take up arms and join the struggle for freedom.

It was estimated that as many as 100,000 people attended his funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Following Casey’s death, the fight for freedom and independence was greatly helped with the emergence of a new organisation called The Irish Land League, led by Michael Davitt, which had its origin in Mayo. Also, major new moves were taking place to obtain Home Rule and for the Irish to take more control over their own affairs.

One of the most successful organisations to emerge in November of 1884 was the Gaelic Athletic Association, formed in Thurles, and clubs subsequently formed in all parts of the country. As well as sporting events, the clubs organised social events, concerts, house dances and undercover training for groups preparing to fight for independence.

Work became more plentiful but wages remained low, and many family members had to emigrate, mainly to Argentina, America or England. The 1901 Census return for the Mullally family of Milltown, Rathconrath, County Westmeath lists Ann Mullally, a widow, and her four children, Brigid, aged 30, described as ‘farmer’s daughter’, Patrick, aged 28, described as ‘farmer’s son’, John, aged 21, whose occupation is given as carpenter, and William, aged 16, described as ‘farmer’s son’. Anne Mullally’s husband, a farmer and carpenter, had died in 1898.

The four children still living with their widowed mother were members of a family of 11 whose older siblings had emigrated before 1901. William, the youngest would, subsequently train as a carpenter, like his older brother John, and in 1907 would emigrate to the USA.

The fate of the Mullally children was typical of that of many children born on small farms in Ireland in the post-Famine period. Though Ireland’s natural increase in population (the number by which births exceeded deaths) was among the highest in Europe, it was continuously offset by emigration and the population of what would become the Republic of Ireland would decline until 1961.

Of the 11 Mullally children, nine, including William, emigrated, although two would subsequently return to Ireland – Thomas, who had emigrated to Wales, and John, who had emigrated to Australia.

The Westmeath Examiner of 7 September 1907 recorded that William Mullally had “left his mother’s residence to join his sister at Liverpool en route for New York”. That account of William’s emigration is slightly misleading, as William spent three years in Birkenhead, where his sister Ann and brother Thomas lived, before emigrating to the USA, aged 26.

Learning to play

Two of William’s older brothers were already in New York, where they had become policemen.

Although neither of William’s parents were musical, he and several of his siblings learned to play instruments and would become known for their musical talent in the area where they lived, and beyond. One of his brothers played the uilleann pipes and other members of the family played the concert flute, mouth organ and bodhrán.

William learned to play the concertina from his neighbour, Mrs Ann Heduan (née Drew) of Painestown. Mrs Heduan was sister of Cella Drew, a renowned concertina player, who also gave William lessons. It is possible that William may have learned to read music as manuscript notations of dance music were found in a concertina case belonging to one of William’s brothers.

During William’s youth, Westmeath – and particularly the area where he lived – had a strong musical tradition. In his immediate neighbourhood, Pat Delamere played the fiddle and three Fagan brothers played the mouth organ and tin whistle. Annie L’Estrange of Painestown played the concertina and her brother Thomas played the fiddle. Tom Owens, who played the fiddle, was also a music teacher and Jim Seery played the fiddle, while Nellie Williams (née Boyhan) played the concertina. Frank Gavigan’s father Paddy was a noted accordion player.

William Mullally, as a young man, is known to have played at a musical event in the local hall around 1900 with fiddle players William Egan, William Moffatt and Paddy Wynn.

According to local historians, Milltown was the venue for the first ever Áeríocht held in Ireland, in 1902. It is known that many famous people attended those events, which were held annually until the mid-1930s under the auspices of the Gaelic League. Noted artists who contributed to the programme were Owen Lloyd, the famous harper; Pat Flanagan, the Dublin piper; and Mrs Brian O’Higgins and Sinead Bean De Valera, singers. A strong concertina-playing tradition had developed in Westmeath by the time William learned the instrument, and when Harry Bradshaw in the 1980s researched his early career, there were older people alive who could name many concertina players playing at the turn of the 20th century.

William Mullally would have played at house dances, the most common form of entertainment at the time, and Mrs Kate Doolin recalled him playing at one such dance around 1905: “He played in the house I was born in, he was a great musician, oh he was great… To my mind now he looked then to be about 20 or so, and it was shortly after that he emigrated.” Also, Ann Heduan’s daughter Mary Ann remembers him working as a carpenter at their house in Painstown about a mile from his house.

Whenever he got a chance, he would reach up to the top of the dresser for her mother’s concertina and play a few tunes.

During his three years in Birkenhead, it is likely that William Mullally encountered English concertina players, as the instrument was then at the height of its popularity in music halls, where Alexander Prince and Percy Henri were popular players and were among the earliest performers to record concertina music.

While it is not known if William heard those players, either live or on record, it was during his time in Birkenhead that he bought a fine concertina that he would later use in his recordings in the USA.

When he settled in New York, William seems to have lived for many years with his older brother Michael, a policeman, who was unmarried and lived at 142 West 67th St.

Michael also played the concertina and probably introduced William to the Irish traditional music scene in New York.

While many records of Irish traditional music had been issued by the 1920s, no records of concertina playing were made until Columbia became aware of William Mullally’s talent and in 1926 issued the first concertina recording on which William played, accompanied on piano by Ed Geoghegan, a major figure in Irish traditional music in New York who accompanied other well-known Irish-American musicians on recordings.

William also performed on radio in 1926 as a schedule of radio programmes in the Portsmouth Times of 29 April 1926 lists him performing ‘Jigs and Reels on the Concertina’. Over a 16-month period in 1926 and 1927, Mullally issued 10 sides of concertina music.

His second recording session was at the Victor studio in Camden New Jersey on 11 November 1926, when he recorded four sides accompanied by Edward Lee on piano.

Mullally used placenames from his home area as tune titles including ‘The Humours of Mullingar’, ‘The Westmeath Hunt’, ‘The Races of Athlone’ and ‘The Drumraney Lass’.

After a brief but important recording career, William Mullally seems to have disappeared from Irish-American music circles. He drifted from job to job in the USA and may have ceased to play entirely. He did not marry and lost contact with brothers and sisters in the USA and Ireland. Nothing is known of the last 20 years of his life until he was reported to have died in an institution in the southern USA in the 1950s, when he would have been in his 70s.

William Mullally’s musical flame burned only briefly but burned brightly and his recordings, first issued 100 years ago this year, are among the finest concertina playing of his era.

When the last of the Mullallys died in the early 1950s, the house lay vacant for 10 years until it was demolished to make way for a new school, which opened in 1965.

Twenty years later the local GAA club bought the land that was farmed by the Mullally family for generations. Great developments took place then and a fine pitch and community centre are now enjoyed by many that might not know the history and events of all those years ago.

Traditional music survived in Milltown mainly due to the Seery family, neighbours of the Mullallys. The late Jim Seery was one of the founding members of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 1951.

October concert

The present branch of Comhaltas was named after the late Frank Gavigan, who taught many young people to play, including Mick Foster of the famous Foster and Allen duo.

Mick is the present chairman of the branch, and events they organise include a weekend of music in October. This year’s events start on Friday October 2 with a star-studded line-up concert in the Community Centre, Milltown, Rathconrath.

On the afternoon of October 3, all concertina players are welcome to come and play a tune or two with Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh on the spot where the Mullally home once stood and join local musicians for a cup of tea and a chat afterwards. The usual céilí with the Glenside Céilí Band will follow in the evening.

On the Sunday at 11am, a Comhaltas Mass will be celebrated for the Mullally family and deceased members of the branch. On Sunday from 7pm, all musicians are welcome to join Mick and Moyra Foster for an evening of traditional music in Fox’s Bar, Loughnavalley.

In 2011 Harry Bradshaw, Nicholas Carolan and Jackie Small went to great lengths researching Mullally’s life and remastering his music. I would like to thank them for allowing me to use extracts from this booklet. I would also like to thank Sean Byrne, a grandnephew of Mullally, for his advice and research.

We in the Frank Gavigan Branch of CCÉ would like to acknowledge and appreciate funding from Comhaltas and Westmeath County Council in the past.