The American Export of Irish Music
Updated: Jun 25, 2025
When one thinks of American musical exports, one would hardly think of Irish traditional music. However, innovation in the United States led to incalculable change in the world of Irish traditional music more than a century ago.
Among Thomas Edison’s one thousand patented inventions was a wax cylinder, the earliest stable carrier for recorded sound. This invention was observed at Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition in 1893 by a piper named Patsy Touhey. Raised in Boston and playing a set of pipes crafted by the Taylor Brothers in Philadelphia, Touhey recognised the potential of recording his playing. His modern pipes, fitted with regulators and tuned to concert pitch (D), delighted audiences from stages across America and were loud enough to fill a large hall (it was busy American dance halls that helped push for louder uilleann pipes!).
It was said Touhey and Edison couldn’t agree on a price, so Touhey bought his own Ediphone and recorded himself on wax cylinders to post to customers. Francis O’Neill, Chief of Police in Chicago, also recorded Touhey. Posting a wax cylinder to the collector Canon James Goodman back in Ireland, the reverend remarked “...The Homeric ballads and the new Brooklyn Bridge are great, but Patsy Touhey's rendering of 'The Shaskeen Reel' is a far bigger achievement.”
Later, thousands of 78rpm recordings from New York would not only be played on gramophones across America but sent to families back in Ireland. The style and sound varied from their counterparts across the Atlantic, but pipers like Patsy Touhey, Michael Gallagher, and Tom Ennis inspired musicians back in Ireland.
These American inventions were vital in preserving Irish traditional music and shaping the tradition for generations to come!
Peoria Irish Fest thanks Bridie Flaherty of the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin for this content. A Peoria native, Bridie now serves as the ITMA Cultural Experience Coordinator and encourages everyone to visit the archive when next in Dublin!
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