Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic

Subject: Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 12:42 PM

Does anyone have any information about the harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic/Teresa MacCormack, mother of Peadar Broe? This is all I could find, and it doesn't give a year of birth.

Subject: RE: Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: Felipa
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 01:28 PM

Piper Peadar Broe was, according to information available on line ( https://ronanbrownemusic.com/780-2/peadar-broe/ ), born in 1928. So that gives you a rough idea of her age. I tried a couple of search parameters for the 1911 census, but didn't get anyone (I thought I would get multiple possibilities, maybe I should have tried "Theresa" with an "h", or McCormack minus an "a") Séamus Mac Fheorais wrote a bit awkwardly that she was "an accomplished harpist in the 1930s and 40s.

Have you tried enquiring of any of these organisations?

The Historical Harp Society
https://www.irishharp.org/

Harp Ireland
https://www.harpireland.ie/

Cairde na Cruite
https://www.cairdenacruite.com/

ITMA, Irish Traditional Music Archives
(not only a search, a direct query)
https://www.itma.ie/

Na Piobairí Uilleann
https://pipers.ie/

Subject: RE: Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 01:34 PM

Thanks, I'm pursuing some of these.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 08:21 AM

She was running the Teresa McCormac Harp School in Dublin in the 1930s…

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 08:47 AM

http://simonchadwick.net/2016/12/teresa-mccormac-dublin.html

Some biographical info and two recordings of her harp playing at that link.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 09:23 AM

Thanks, GUEST #; that's the link I posted in the first post as a blueclicky.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 09:24 AM

She played in various concerts that Leo Rowsome also played in, I've discovered.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 09:25 AM

My apologies, JTT. I had read the post but missed seeing the link. I think my eyes are going. Sorry. However, I will keep looking.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 11:53 AM

Thanks very much. I'm puzzled by not being able to find her in either the 1901 or 1911 census under either maiden name (in various spellings and both languages) or married name.
I've written to all of the organisations suggested by Felipa; only one, Na Piobairí Uilleann, wrote back so far.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 01:30 PM

A harper called Teresa McCormack was advertised as due to play at a concert in the Mansion House, Dublin in 1915.

Irish Volunteer, 20/11/1915

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 01:47 PM

Yes, a Fianna concert for the Manchester Martyrs, that's herself. It's weird how invisible she is apart from these occasional appearances, though. She was running a harp school in the 1930s, seems to have been living in Drumcondra…

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 03:37 PM

See p.3, upper-right hand corner. (It's just a mention of her name.)

from

The Irish Volunteer - Óglach na hÉireann Volume 2 - Number 49 newspaper, first published 13th November 1915

I don't think that duplicates GUEST,Modette's post.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: Felipa
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 04:23 PM

re the census,which JTT also searched unsuccessfully, maybe Treasa's family lived abroad in 1911 - for instance in Britain ... I just tried a few different spellings in my search; I wasn't going to spend all day on it.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 04:45 PM

Thanks, GUEST, I have that Irish Volunteer piece, should've mentioned that, and a few pieces from Irish Times as well. And thanks, Felipa, I can't find her in the 1901 census either, unless this likely-looking crowd is her family and she's abroad then too - they're in No 10 Seaview Avenue, Clontarf, which is not a house I'd throw out of bed for eating Taytos.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 05:39 PM

Appealing though that family looked as a prospect, I now see the mother filling out the form in 1911 to say she had ten children of whom six are living; since six children were listed on the census in 1901, that's Teresa gone from there unless (and it's a very unlikely unless) she used Teresa as a professional name but was otherwise Christina, Máire or Margaret.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: Felipa
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 05:50 PM

yes, I was going to say that the Mac Cormaic family were still at Seaview Ave in 1911 and had no child named Teresa or Treasa or anything similar. Teresa/Treasa could also be a middle name or as you say, an adopted name. So the census is not looking useful. And there was no Irish census done in 1921 so it will be another 5 years before we can look at the next census release. Is there anything interesting in the Irish Times articles, do they just say where Treasa Nic Chormaic was giving a recital?

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 10 Jun 21 - 03:36 AM

At one stage, in a 1945 Thomas Davis Centenary Book Fair, she was playing the music the poets of the Nation listened to. Other people lecturing and performing included Patricia Lynch, who wrote many children's books (The Turf-Cutter's Donkey, King of the Tinkers, etc); Sean O'Faolain; President Sean T and Mrs O'Kelly "paid an informal visit".
In 1935 she played at a Fianna Fail céilidhe attended by 1,000 people. Sean T O'Kelly, Frank Aiken, Sean MacEntee et al were there. "The following artistes contributed to the programme: Treasa Nic Cormaic, Leo Rowsome, Aindreas O Muimhneachain, Gabriel Lyons, Tadhg Forbes, Tadhg Small, M Greegan, Una Ni Thiomain, Miss Berrigan, Mrs L Rapple, Peig Ni Annrachain and Miss Lyons (accompanist).
In 1937 Miss Rosaleen Halligan, a pupil of Teresa McCormac's Irish Harp School, is pictured after winning first prize in the Junior Harp Competition in Feis Atha Cliath.
In 1940 she's playing at a Gaelic League event along with An Ceol-Chumann, Townsend Harpists, Pilib O Laoghaire (Bheidhlin), Ide Ni Chadhla (Amhrain), Craobh an Cheitinaigh, Colm O Lochlainn (amhrain ag a bpiano).
In 1974 an obituary of her son Peadar Broe mentions that before wt the article calls his "tragic death" in January, "for many years he had farmed in County Cork".
Also in 1974 his widow is looking for anyone who has any recordings of his music (in a piece talking about piping generally and referring to the upcoming chance to hear "the sweet little pipes of Northumbria").
Another son is mentioned in a piece by Benedict Kiely from 1981, remembering back to 1939, when "in Dublin, a sleepy Sunday afternoon, in North Dublin city, in Hollybrook Road, Clontarf. But, in the house of Brian O'Higgins, Brian na Banban, there was a very pleasant party going on.
Jimmy Broe was on his feet and singing, in one of the best tenor voices I've ever heard… That voice is long silent; Jimmy died young. He was the son of the harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic, with whom, and with Dennis Cox, the baritone, I once travelled on the boat from Glasgow to Belfast."

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,#
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 07:34 PM

https://ronanbrownemusic.com/780-2/peadar-broe/?audiogallery_startitem_ag1=0

Not exactly on topic, but close. Eighteen takes of Peadar Broe piping.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 08:13 AM

Ah, thank you, Guest.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 12:47 PM

Remarkably few answers from the harpists' groups; perhaps they're busy with other things. This surprises me.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,DM
Date: 04 May 24 - 09:04 PM

Some information on Teresa Nic Chormaic - my grand aunt.
Born: Mary Teresa, 5 Feb 1886, 3 lr Wellington St, Dublin.
Many of her family - her father and siblings - played instruments.
Married: James Broe, of Lackan Well, Blessington, Sept 1917 in Dublin
2 children: Carmel [1919-1979], Peadar Mary [1925-1974]
1930s residence: Ballygall Road, Finglas, Dublin 11
Death: 9 May 1949, St. Vincent's Hospital, Drumcondra. Lung Cancer.

Subject: RE: Info: Harpist Treasa Nic Chormaic
From: GUEST,DM
Date: 04 May 24 - 09:30 PM

As for Teresa's residences in the Census, they are as follows [100% certain as my grandfather was her sibling]

1901: 10 Pembroke Street Lower, Dublin

1911: Royal Canal Bank, Arran Quay, Dublin