Irish Dulcimers

“Alec Magee of Larne made about a dozen instruments, many of them for young people, who apparently gave up when they found it too difficult; he was a joiner, took the measurements for his instruments from that of John Rea, and used autoharp pins from a music shop.” So this is, in fact, an exact copy of John Rea's Dulcimer.

Below is William Rea's Dulcimer which was also made by Alec Magee.

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William Rea & Nat Magee playing their Magee Dulcimers at Nat's Talk on John Rea at CDF05.

Jack Bethel sent me this rare photo of 'The Rea Family' performing in Glasgow around 1986, tweny years ago! From left to right they are, James, a nephew of John Rea, and his two sons George & David.

I've often heard Glasgow described as a bit of a jungle, & this photo just proves it!! :-)

Here is the fascinating story of Sally Young & Essie Begg’s Dulcimers, which were both made by their Grandfather, Stuart McMaster of Ballyhalbert.

"Sally & Essie were born and raised at Ballyfrench, a townland on the Scottish-facing coast of the Ards Peninsula in County Down. Their Maternal grandfather was James Cleland Bailie (born 31st July 1861), a stonemason. He lived at the Townhead (Tounheid) outside Ballyhalbert.

James, Frank Caughey (grandfather of the late Frank Caughey of “Ballyhalbert Stores”) and another friend learned to play the fiddle, and bought fiddle tunes from a travelling fiddler who visited the “Low Country” once a month. One of the three would buy the tune each month and the three on them would learn it and this meant they had three tunes for the price of
one each.

James’s wife, Elizabeth Bailie, was a quiltmaker and would hold quilting parties when 8 – 10 other local women would come to the Bailie’s farmhouse and spend a few days making a quilt. When the quilt was done and the men had come back from their day’s work they would clear the barn and hold a celebratory barn dance for the completion of the quilt. So late 19th Century Ulster-Scots were enjoying the same folk culture as their more renowned American and Appalachian kinsfolk.

See: Patchwork Quilts

James was working in the Grampian Avenue / Templemore Avenue area of East Belfast when one day he heard music coming from nearby the house he was building. He stopped work, went out to the street and discovered a hammer dulcimer being played.

He then built his own, made out of Rosewood, copied exactly from the one he’d seen in Belfast, and brought hammer dulcimer music to the Ards Peninsula in the mid 1880s. He would come home at night from a hard days work and put his feet up on the old fireplace at home and play the fiddle with mortar still stuck to his hands. He designed and built the Church of Ireland St Andrew’s Rectory at Ballyeasborough, between Ballyhalbert and Portavogie.

His wife’s nephew, Stuart McMaster of Ballyhalbert (born 1893) copied James’ hammer dulcimer in the early 1900s. This is the dulcimer that was eventually handed down to Sally."

The Dulcimer above is the one built by James & it is now in Reading, England, owned by Essie.

The one below is the one built by Stuart, & it is still in County Down, owned by Sally Young.

Sally Young's Co. Down Hammered Dulcimer.

Sally Young's Co. Down Hammered Dulcimer, side on.

Close up of the central art work on Sally's Dulcimer.

Lyre on a Dulcimer.

Chessmen on Sally's Dulcimer.

Damaged back of Sally's Dulcimer.

Evidence of unwelcome residents in Sally's Dulcimer.

Sally Young & her Co. Down Hammered Dulcimer.

Many thanks to Sally, above, for telling her story,

& to Mark Thompson, of the 'Low Country Boys', for passing on the story to me

& supplying the excellent photographs of Sally's beautiful Dulcimers.

E-mail Dick Glasgow