Professor John Cummings (c. 1828-after 1913) was an Irish piper.
A son of
Patrick Cummins (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1820s), Cummings was raised near
Athenry, where his family had performed and taught music for generations. The family name was originally rendered Cummins but the spelling was changed to Cummings in his lifetime. He was given the
honorary title of ''Professor'' in light of the esteem people held his musical abilities.
Cummings worked in England from about 1850 to 1892, in
Liverpool where he worked in building and became friends with the piper/pipemaker Michael Egan, and
London, "where he had much to do with the handling and care of horses."
In 1892 he left England for
San Francisco, where he lived with his daughter, Mrs. Hogan. Only in 1912, as a result of the
Gaelic Revival
The Gaelic revival ( ga, Athbheochan na Gaeilge) was the late-nineteenth-century Romantic nationalism, national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaelic) and Irish Gaelic culture (including Irish folklore, folklore, Iri ...
did he come to a wide audience; previously he performed privately. He was held, despite his age, to be the equal of
Patsy Touhey
Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among It ...
and
Barney Delaney.
References
* ''Irish pipers of distinction'', Chapter XXII, ''Irish Minstrels and Musicians'', by Capt.
Francis O'Neill,
Chicago, 1913.
External links
* http://billhaneman.ie/IMM/IMM-XXII.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cummings, Professor Patrick
1820s births
19th-century Irish male musicians
Musicians from County Galway
Irish male uilleann pipers
Year of death missing
Irish emigrants to the United States
People from Athenry
19th-century Irish uilleann pipers
20th-century Irish uilleann pipers
20th-century Irish male musicians