Extract from 'The Return of the Master'

Fifteen years after his death, RTE has issued a CD of the archival recordings of piper Séamus Ennis. Its producer Peter Browne spoke to Ronan Nolan

"It was almost asking for it." said piper Peter Browne explaining the new CD of Séamus Ennis recordings hand-picked from deep within the RTE sound archives. Séamus Ennis (1919-1982), one of the most gifted uilleann pipers of this century, was also widely known in Ireland and Britain as a collector of tunes, songs and folklore. Versed in the then more varied regional Irish dialects as well as Scottish Gaelic, he was a natural radio and TV presenter. "He had a particular talent for getting on with musicians," says Peter. "So when he visited them they identified with him and gave him extra good performances. I don't think there's any piper capable of playing like that.

"His style by the age of 21 was almost fully developed. What people would have said in 1959 was the stuff of genius, was to my mind all there in 1940," says Peter. "As you look towards the later ones, its slower and more measured." And the style: "He almost would have had to invent it. I can't think that there was anybody earlier playing the regulators in that syncopated manner.The piping is so good on so many of these tracks. When you hear Bonny Kate and The Milliner's Daughter fifty seven years on, I don't think there's any piper capable of playing like that, or even capable of approaching that."

Along with the Ennis discs Peter had picked out, people in the archives section came up with more recordings. Eventually they were sorted down to about 50 tunes and songs, taking up every digit available on a compact disc. Harry Bradshaw did most of the remastering; some tracks had to be sent to London for special digital cleansing. The entire work was done in-house at RTE, right down to printing and publicity.

August 1997