Heritage Corner By Tony Hale
Through an instrument that acts as a timekeeper on one side and a moving display of Gaelic culture on the other, this month’s Heritage Corner introduces us to New Zealand’s earliest Irish Society Pipe Band. Much remains to be discovered about this beautifully decorated bass drum, with the most recent information forth coming in March 2024.
Beautifully decorated bass drum
It was photographed while on display over the King’s Birthday Weekend celebrations, 2023, and is kept in the upstairs storeroom. Its condition needs to be assessed for ongoing preservation.
Pipe band photos in the history booklet, ‘Archives Build History’, show the bass drummer driving the band from the back and was therefore slightly ahead of the marchers. Its low-end sound boomed out, travelling both forward and rear wards, and as such, was an effective timekeeper for marching off the left foot. But sometimes the band did not march at all, standing to provide a guard of honour at a hall entrance to welcome and pipe-in guests. Most appearances, however, were outings in Christchurch and Upper Hutt, leading hurling and camogie players onto a field, Feis visitors from the train station to a meal at the St Asaph Street Hall or guiding young church goers to and from the Barbadoes Street Basilica. The half-yearly Minutes of November 1955 record a decision to form a ‘drum and fife band’, the reverse of the normal wording. Six months later, the AGM instituted the formation of a committee to bring such a band into being, and 20-year-oldMartin Cartwright earned the Pipe Major position under the tutelage of Jack Shanahan, a retired Caledonian Society piper. Public performances date from 1957, nine years after the Society’s formation and the earliest photo marks the initial march-out in October that year, though ironically not in the South Island. A band piper from around 1961 recently returned to Christchurch. Brian O’Brien, now aged 79, was shown a coloured photocopy of the drum. He revealed that there are four visible peripheral clips, their purpose being to secure to the drum a shaped piece of hardboard upon which the painted scene is mounted. It is not known when the hardboard was painted. The drum skin underneath is unpainted. Brian has a memory that the hardboard was sometimes removed and clipped to other drums of the same size, suggesting the Irish Society dance band under Arthur Debenham was a candidate.
Photos of street marches show the band following the direction of traffic. With the bass drum slung vertically it would make sense for the pictorial side to face the footpath crowds to endorse the band’s identity, leaving the right hand to create the sound. Photos, however, do not clearly show this orientation.
The landscape scene is awash with symbolism and references to Irish history. Former committee member Michael Campbell (Co. Antrim/Co. Down) has enthusiastically offered comments and deciphered the symbolism.
Michael’s thoughts are that the drum was carefully measured, perhaps once the pipe band came into existence, with the hardboard design commissioned in Ireland. It is a skilled piece of work, maybe even a standardised design, suggesting a professional hand at work rather than that of an enthusiastic migrant. Local candidacy is possible, however, as Nicky McMullan’s granddaughter Mary O’Beirne states he was a signwriter for some years before tackling the huge Hall backdrop behind the stage.
On that basis, the central portion could have arrived from Ireland for Nicky to add the peripheral signwriting, the wording ‘Irish National Society Christchurch’ being in Gaelic font and a mixture of upper and lower case.
A young colleen, symbolically the Maid of Erin, is seated playing a wire-strung Irish cláirseach, a short-haired Irish wolfhound at her feet, both gazing out to sea. Michael says backgrounding this grouping are the well-known St Kevin’s Round Tower in Glendalough, County Wicklow; a Celtic cross, and the gable end of a rundown church with two silhouettes of single saints, possibly St Patrick and Our Lady, resplendent in stained glass windows. This building remnant is not quite a grotto. These are all standard cultural symbols, especially meaningful to Irish migrants now a hemisphere away from home. The scene is lit by a sun setting over an ocean horizon.
Amidst the bed of shamrocks balancing the scene is the Gaelic expression ‘Erin go Bragh’,which translates as ‘Ireland Forever’.
Brian has written a memory of how the pipe band would ready itself for marching: ‘I'm not sure I recall any signal to start the band marching in unison. It was probably from the call of the Drum Major "By the right (meaning stepping off the right foot first), quick march." The bass drum gave its opening bang, bang, bang at which time the pipes were blown to fill the bag, then another bang, bang, bang, after which the pipes and drums started to play as the band moved off.
For the pipers, it was best to hold a note until the player got in tune with the others - by holding that note the audience would be unable to hear the out of time player because the sound of the drones and chanter of the others would hide the single note sound until the player was able to slot into the music at the right point.
Not a very clear answer I'm afraid but it might give you the essence of the move off.’
The below photo from October 1957 captures the first public procession of the Christchurch Irish Pipe Band, leading out two teams of camogie players on a Hutt Valley playing field. It is the earliest located pipe band photo. The image is cropped from a larger photo in the history booklet. It is now of a size to not only identify personnel but also to reveal the uniform of the day, neat but variable in colour and adornment. A Press article of 21.11.1957, republished in the history booklet, describes in detail the agreed uniform but probably financial considerations had acted as a restraint, for the pipe band was never an earner.
By 1961, later band photos show a uniformly turned-out unit. Brian O’Brien describes this: ‘The tunics we had were army surplus stock which were dyed green, and I don't believe the kilt had any significant allegiance to any clan but, like the tunic, were the cheapest available. We also had a green ribbon protruding 2 or 3 inches from the fold of the socks. The sporrans were tooled leather and I think made at some local institution which had returned servicemen making belts, rag mats, moccasins, and other hand craft for therapy reasons.’
It is now 65 years since this photo was taken and few members can recall the pipe band in detail. A young Martin Cartwright was tutored by Jack Shanahan. Martin is on photo left, with his capped teacher Jack to his far right. Brian, in interview, says he was tutored by Jack’s son Les, and cycled from his home at the Belfast end of Marshland Road to his teacher’s home in lower Cashmere, a considerable journey of keenness. He has identified Les as marching next to his father with his younger brother Jack Jnr next to Martin. The drummers are not yet identified. The ladies are from the Wellington camogie team.We would like to hear from any drummer boys who played the bass drum, for how long they played in the band, and learn who tutored them.
Photo of pipe band - 1957
Can anyone supply extra information concerning the drum’s design, choice of symbolism and painter?
Please contact Tony Hale at: hale_antony@yahoo.co.nz
