In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

5. Captain O’Neill and the Americans Paul de Grae 61 The main outline of Francis O’Neill’s musical life is known to most people with an interest in Irish traditional music: an Irish-born emigrant to America, he rose to become chief of police in Chicago, collected tunes from Irish musicians there and published them in a series of books, the most famous being The Dance Music of Ireland (1907), subtitled 1,001 Gems but often simply called ‘the book’. In this case, popular opinion is substantially correct. O’Neill himself has left us extensive written accounts of his life and work, and, in the years since his death in 1936, considerable scholarly research has been done on O’Neill’s publications.1 While there is still much to be discovered about some central aspects of his work (editorial methods, use of sources, etc.), I intend here to look at some less crucial but still interesting areas: O’Neill’s experiences of America before his move to Chicago in 1870, his contacts with non-Irish musicians in America and his use of American printed sources. Early Years in Ireland Daniel Francis O’Neill was born on 28 August 1848 in Tralibane, near Bantry, County Cork, in the south-west of Ireland, the youngest of seven children , in a modestly prosperous farming family. He grew up in a mostly Irish-speaking community where the old music, songs and dances were part of the fabric of everyday life. He learned to play the flute, and his retentive memory stored up many airs and dance tunes which later appeared in his books. He excelled at school and hoped to become a teacher himself, passing the required examination at the age of fifteen, but was too young to be employed. Eager to get on with his life, he left home in April 1865, intending to apply for a teaching post on one of the Royal Navy school ships in Cork Harbour. Apart from a brief visit after the death of his father in 1867, he was not to set foot in Ireland again until 1906. 62 Paul de Grae At Sea Failing to secure employment in the Royal Navy as either a teacher or a common seaman, and also missing the chance to become a Christian Brother (a last-resort option which indicates how completely he had severed his ties at home), O’Neill took passage to England and signed on as an apprentice seaman, his first voyage being to Egypt and the Black Sea. O’Neill’s first sight of America was from the deck of the packet ship Emerald Isle, which sailed from Liverpool in August 1866, bound for New York; O’Neill was assistant steward. Among the emigrant passengers was the Rogers family, from Feakle, County Clare, whose acquaintance O’Neill made on the voyage; four years later, O’Neill was to marry Anna Rogers. O’Neill’s seafaring career continued, with voyages to the West Indies and Japan. En route from Yokohama to Honolulu, his ship Minnehaha was wrecked on Baker Island, whence he and his shipmates were picked up by the brig Zoe and carried to Honolulu. The Zoe already carried survivors of another shipwreck , and rations were scarce on the voyage, but because of his musical abilities, O’Neill fared better than most: One of the Kanaka sailors, who had a flute and apparently was proud of his musical accomplishments, regaled us nightly with a hymn tune which he repeated without change while his wind lasted. Being something of a performer on that instrument, I picked it up one evening and rattled off ‘The Soldier’s Joy’, ‘Yankee Doodle’, and ‘The Girl I Left behind Me’. Whatever may have been thought of my performance by others, I won the Kanaka fluter’s friendship, for thereafter he shared his daily ration of poi and salmon with me and I gladly let him have my allowance of salt meat. I have no doubt that this incident profoundly influenced my future, for while others were left behind [hospitalised in Honolulu], I was on my way to San Francisco, California, and a new life. (Skerrett and Lesch, 2008: 26–7) Shepherding in California Although he made at least two more San Francisco–Honolulu return trips, O’Neill soon found that seafaring employment was hard to come by – according to himself, because of Scandinavian dominance of the West Coast trade (Skerrett and Lesch, 2008: 28) – and in April 1868 he took...

Share