Blackpool, Cork, 1899: Tadgh Crowley is born. He becomes a keen bagpipe player and in the 1920s, after Cork has convulsed though the War of Independence and Civil war, opens a business repairing bag pipes and drums. It will later morph into a music shop.
Crowley’s, as it will become known, is later described in song by John Spillane as a “shop of dreams, a cave of wonders, a palace of musical delight.” In 1926 Tadgh will repair a set of uilleann pipes for Henry Ford. Those pipes are now in a museum in Dearbourn, Michigan. In his lifetime his passion will see him transcribe all the 1001 tunes from the famous Chief O’Neill’s book to bagpipe settings.
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