Louis Noble, Irish Warpiper

This is a page about my Irish and Scottish Warpipes teacher, the late Louis Noble, whom I met in 1966 in Rochester N.Y.

"It was while I lived in Gloucester Rd. I heard for the first time the Warpipers of the Scots Guards Pipe Band played by our house and I walked with them for about three miles; it must have made an impression on me. My father was musical and used to whistle jigs and Irish dance tunes. He also sang a few Irish songs -- gra ma chree ma Chruis Laun and The Protestant Boys . My mother had a sweet voice when she sang hymns."

"I was reared amongst English boys and although I was taken to Ireland when I was a school boy, I did not know very much about the history of the country, it was to the farm on the shores of Lough Neagh and near Shanes Castle."

"When I was seventeen I joined a volunteer regiment of rifles and after passing through the recruits training I went in a class to become an N.C.O. I passed with full marks and got my first stripe and in eighteen months I was a full Sergeant. I liked the life in camp and looked forward to going to camp each year. I spent five years in the regiment. When I was twenty-one years of age my parents bought a new house at a place called Kensal Rise, Willesden, NW London. One evening when I came home from work I found my mother having tea with a young man. She introduced me to him, a Liam O'Cuirnin, an Irishman born in London."

"He came to the house to get the lease signed by my mother and he asked her if she was Irish and when she answered yes he spent two hours talking about Ireland and Gaelic League and that there was to be An Aonach ² to be held in the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster London. Liam O'Cuirnin gave us some leaflets about the Aonach and I was the first in the hall when it was open. I also was there each evening from Tuesday to Saturday and during that time I was signed up as a new member of the London Gaelic League. My mother came as she was very interested in most things, particularly the four piece orchestra conducted by Miss Agnes MacHale. Mother knew some of the old melodies, also three pipers played on the Piob Mor. They only used two drones, which was the fashion in those days, with the few Irish Pipers that were in London. The names of the pipers were Harry Hough, Robert O'Shea and Cusack. O'Shea was the best piper of the three, but the most enthusiastic of the three was Harry Hough. O'Shea did not bother to buy a set of pipes for himself. I asked Harry Hough where I could learn to play and he welcomed me to come to the Pipers Club and soon I started to learn. I did not make much progress with him and I asked who had taught them."

"I was soon to know the story of the great man who started the club. He was known to most members of the Gaelic League as "An Paorac ³ ". The story of how he came to learn to play the Piob Mor is worth recording. He was in Ireland at the time that I joined the Pipers Club and it was from his teacher Donald McKay and MacKays father that I got the story of how An Paorac came to know Donald MacKay and how he became a pupil of that famous champion piper."

"It came about this way: every year on St. Patricks Day the London Gaelic League had a big concert in the Queens Hall, London, and sold a program at the concert, which was more than just a program, it was a annual magazine, full of articles about Ireland in Gaelic and English."

"One year An Paorac had an article on the Irish War Pipes and he also played a selection on the pipes. In the audience was Charlie MacKay and his son Donald, the famous Scottish Piper who had won the Inverness Gold Medal for Piobaireach (1903-- the tune he played was the famous Patrick Og McCrumens Lament ). On the suggestion of the father, Donald wrote to the Gaelic League offering to teach the piper who played at the concert. An Paorac took this fine opportunity and became a close friend of the MacKays."

"I was only a few weeks on the practice chanter when I went to have lessons from Donald MacKay and then I soon made progress, although my father at that time was not in favour of me going to the Gaelic League for lessons in Irish and to learn Irish Dancing. Well, one morning much to my surprise, my mother asked me how much would a set of pipes cost. I said "a lot of money, Mother " and that I had a lot to learn on the chanter. Her reply was that my father was getting very interested in the little tunes that I was learning, such as The Peeler and the Goat and Dorans Ass ."

"Mother then said I was to ask Donald MacKay to get the cost of a set of pipes. When I told mother the cost, she went and handed me the money and said "Your father wants you to get them as soon as possible"; well, I can hardly tell you how pleased my parents were when I was able to play on the big pipes and then every evening father and I would go out on the fields in near our house for practice. I was on the pipes only eighteen months when I went to Dublin for the Oireachtas ⁴ and won the Gold Medal, the first prize. When I returned to London, the members of the Pipers Club said I was to be Pipe Major."

"The names of some of the members of the Pipers Club that I remember were: Maurice O'Connell (Secretary), Liam O'Cuirnin, Rory O'Cuirnin, T. Daly, T. Dignan, J. Coaghlan, C. McGeogh Trimbal, Sean Howard, Dan MacCarthy."

"Record of the winners of the Piping -- Annual Oireachtas Competitions who were members of the Pipers Club :

"An Paorac", R. O'Shea, L. Noble [winner 1910 & 1914], J. Coughlan [1911], Maurice O'Connell [2nd prize 1912, 1913, 1st prize 1919]."

"The chief business of the Pipers Club was in the teaching of the Warpipes, also each pupil was trained as a Solo Piper. It was not intended to produce a pipe band, although we did play together. We looked at drums as a purely English instrument and had been introduced in Pipe Bands by the English, and were not used by Irish or Scottish pipers until after 1745. I think that to make it possible for the pipers to play as a band, the Warpipes was then for the first time that the chanter pitch was standardized to the same pitch as brass & reed bands."

"Early in the year 1914 Michael Collins came to me at the Pipers Club and asked me had I had military training and would I come to the German Gymnasium at St. Pancras Rd. There I trained the No. 1 Co. of the London Irish Volunteers, the following are the names of those that I can remember: Michael Collins, Maurice Sheahan, Sean Hurley, Sean & E. Nunan, Dan Sheahan, M. Cremins, John O'Brien, Francis Fitzgerald, Con Crowley, Padraig O'Conaire, Joe & Matt Furlong, there were seventy-seven names on my roll."

"I would like to state now that the London Gaelic League encouraged me in every way to teach & play the pipes. Our small Pipers Club were able to supply a number of pipers for the annual St. Patricks Concert at the Queens Hall. Maurice O'Connell who was secretary for over ten years and was a winner of the 1919 Oireachtas Gold Medal was also a very keen teacher. Also, I should say that one of our best pipers was Donald Foley of Tralee & Kilorglin, Co. Kerry. I might say that I helped to start the Tralee Pipe Band, we practiced in the Rink. I also was the teacher of the Dublin Tramway Pipe Band; my best pupil was John Keogh who came from the Glenn of Immal, Co. Wicklow, and his son Pipe Major T. Keogh of the Fintan Lalor Pipe Band is now I think the best Irish Piper in the city of Dublin. He was a pupil of the famous Alex Meikle, a Scottish piper who trained a number of bands in the city of Dublin and raised the standard of piping to a very high degree."

"I may at this point state that I have adjudicated at the following Feisanna: Newcastle Co.Down, Ballygawley and Fintona, Co.Tyrone, Father Mathews Feis in Cork. Also at the Annual Aeridheach ⁵ held at the Garda Depot 1928, 1929 and 1930. Tailtain Games 1924, also a number of times for the Annual Oireachtas ."

"I was the piper who played the lament at the Bi-Centenary Celebration of the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, organized by the Dublin Wicklowmens Association at Glasnevin Cemetery. Also I led the procession to Michael O'Dwyers Cottage when they laid an inscribed stone at place where the cottage stood."

"It was when I was performing on the pipes at the Tralee that I met the lady that was to become my wife. We were married at St. Johns, Tralee, Sept 4, 1912. We have five children -- two boys, three daughters and five grandchildren."

"I also organized the pipers in the Sham Battle in Glenmalure for the Dublin Wicklow Mens Association."

I was also instrumental in getting the Six County Bands to come to Dublin for Annual Competitions for the All Ireland Pipe Band Championships. While working in Belfast during the war I got to know Mr. Rollins the Secretary of the Northern Band Association and when I put it to him that when the war would be over, the pipe bands should get together for competitions he was enthusiastic about it."

¹ Official abbreviation for Hertfordshire
² un ayn-ohck , "the fair"
³ un pehr-ack , a nickname, believed to be a corruption of piobareachd (peeb-rock) "pipe music"
⁴ or-ochtuhs , "competition", or "festival"
⁵ According to a response from an inquiry to the official AN SÍOCHÁNA GARDA website: "The word "Aeridheach" would appear to be the same word as "Aeraiocht" which basically means open-air entertainment."

Audio Interview From 1968

Obituary from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

L.P. Noble, Bagpipe Player

Louis P. Noble, 84, 92 McEwen Road, Greece, a noted bagpipe player for more than 50 years, died yesterday (Aug. 11,1970) in Genesee Hospital.

Mr. Noble, a native of England, had played his pipes at the Royal Albert Hall in London and won the 1910 and 1914 bagpipe championships of Ireland.

He helped found the Celtic Pipe Band of Rochester and taught bagpipe playing.

He moved to the United States in 1947.

He was a member of the Greece Folk Society, the Wexford Men's Association in New York City, and St. Charles Borromeo Church in Greece.

In England he belonged to the Gaelic League and at age 17 was a sergeant in the British Army.

He had worked as an electrical contractor in England.

Louis Noble in the Irish Volunteers

Photographs of Louis Noble, 1909 to 1963

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