Post Worlds, the family and I extended our UK trip and took the ferry out of Troon into Northern Ireland. We spent the better part of that week exploring the northern coast of Ulster and region of Antrim. The causeway coast is gorgeous with plenty of sight seeing and natural beauty to keep us busy. Just a short drive past the Giant’s Causeway and its famous stones are the ruins of Dunluce castle. Nothing particular about these ruins stands out from others but for the fact that Dunluce castle was the seat of the first two Earls of Antrim. Naturally my thoughts drifted to the fine piobaireachd “Lament for the Earl of Antrim,” allegedly composed by Donald Mor MacCrimmon in his lifetime and before his death circa 1640.
Dunluce castle was in part quite an old structure. Not much is known about the ancient owners the McQuillans or their predecessors, but it wasn’t until it became long the home of the prominent MacDonnell family that the site rose to grandeur. Ranald McDonnell was indeed named first Earl of Antrim in 1620 and his son Ranald, the second Earl, was driven out the castle in 1642 to eventually take up the family’s current seat at Glenarm. All of this got me to thinking about piobaireachd. Under what circumstances would “Lament for the Earl of Antrim” have been composed? Who was the Earl and why would a lament be needed in the first place? We could think about the concerns of nobility and politics and the dry history of English and Irish government as it pertains to the history of piobaireachd, but I like to think about the people of the times, how they behaved, and how they lived when I think about the piobaireachd’s origins. Read More
Subscribe to the PIPEHACKER RSS feed.
Pipehacker