Séamus Ennis The Uillean piper - Musician Statues on Waymarking.com

His father was James Ennis, who was a prize-winning musician on several instruments including the Uilean pipes and also a champion dancer. Séamus had two brothers and three sisters. None of his brothers or sisters took up music professionally, but his daughter Catherine is a well known organist and his son Chris plays the fiddle and sings. One of the main streets in Finglas has by popular acclaim, been re-named Séamus Ennis Road.
Childhood

Séamus Ennis was introduced to music at a very early age. His father used to play the pipes to him in his cradle. There were many musical visitors to the house. Pipers Liam Andrews of Dublin and Pat Ward of Drogheda, James McCrone, a reed maker, fiddle player Frank O'Higgins and John Cawley (flute) were frequent visitors. This obviously influenced Séamus because, at the age of two, his father heard him trying to hum a tune, and this prompted him to carve an imitation set of pipes for his son. He knew the names of some of the tunes when he was only three years old.
Séamus attended the Holy Faith Convent in Glasnevin and Belvedere College. Then he attended all-Irish schools at Scoil Cholm Cille and Colaiste Mhuire. This gave him a good grounding in Irish which he developed to the full in his travels around Ireland collecting songs and tunes. He had an uncanny ability to converse in the regional Gaelic dialects with people in Connemara, Donegal, Kerry and even Scotland. Séamus developed his skill in writing down music by listening attentively to the singers of traditional slow airs. This gift would prove invaluable when in the early 1940's he would travel the country as music archivist for the Dept. of Folklore at U.C.D. Séamus's travels were by push bike in the 1940's as it was during the war years and he collected all his tunes by pen and paper.

Working Years

When Séamus left school he was employed by Colm O'Lochlainn at the Three Candle Press and learned all the tasks associated with the printing trade as well as learning to write down slow airs in staff notation along with the ability to write dance music his father had taught him. Colm O'Lochlainn was a major cause for his love for the Irish language. It was Colm who introduced Séamus to Professor Séamus O'Duilearge of the Irish Folklore Commission.

The first of his travels for the Irish Folklore Commission was to Connemara where he met a man named Pat Cannin. He asked Séamus did he know a reel which he whistled to him. Séamus wrote the reel on a piece of paper by the side of the road and named it The Mist on the Mountain.

Séamus found the greatest repository of songs and tunes and their background in fact and fame in a little pocket of North Connemara in a place called Glinnsce, "Clear Water" in English. He recorded two hundred and twelve items straight from the memory of Colm O'Caoidheain who lived in this area.

The Irish Folklore Commission then asked Séamus to focus his attention on the musical heritage Ireland shared with Scotland. This involved him travelling to Scotland in 1946. This was the year where the winter was bitterly cold, but, this didn't stop Seamus from swimming every day and he became known as the mad Irishman. In 1946 he applied for a job in Radio Eireann as an Outside Broadcast Officer. He commenced this job in August 1947. It was not long before Séamus proved himself to be a skilled presenter. On a visit to Clare in 1949 he recorded Willie Clancy, Bobby Casey, Sean Reid, Martin Talty and Micho Russell.

In 1951 Séamus moved to London to work with the BBC on a scheme aimed at recording extensively the surviving folk culture of England, Scotland and Wales. He travelled all over Ireland and Britain collecting material and was one of the presenters of the radio programme "As I Roved Out". He married Maragaret Glynn in 1952 and had two children, Catherine and Christopher. In 1958 his marriage ended and he returned to Ireland where he did freelance work with Radio Eireann and presented programmes such as An Ceoltoir Sidhe and Seamus Ennis san Chathaoir on RTE. Séamus performed around Ireland during the 1960's and played at the first meeting of Na Piobairi Uileann in Bettystown Co Meath in 1968.

In the early 1970's he shared accommodation with piper Liam O'Floinn in Dublin. Seamus left a last impression on Liam O'Floinn who was in awe of his knowledge and expertise. Séamus left his set of pipes to Liam. These pipes were orginally purchased by Seamus's father in a second hand shop in London. They were made by Morris Coyne in 1830's.

He returned to The Naul in 1975 to live out his remaining years in a mobile home which he called "Easter Snow" which was one of his favourite tunes. His sister lived with him on this land which belonged to their grandparents. The Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre is now situated on this site. He continued playing around Ireland right up to the time he lost his battle with cancer in October, 1982 aged 63. One of his last performances was at the Willie Clancy Summer School of 1982 and the Lisdoonvarna Folk Festival.

Name of Musician: Séamus Ennis

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