Martin O'Reilly

Who is Martin O'Reilly?

Martin O'Reilly was a blind Irish piper.

Although associated with east County Galway in some sources, O'Reilly was born in Galway City, living at the junction of Eyre Street and Suckeen. At one stage he became step-father to the piper John Moore, as he married the boy's mother when her first husband died. He also taught the piper Peter Kelly.

He kept a dance hall in the Suckeen for some years before it was forcibly closed by a local priest. Francis O'Neill who published a short biography of him in 1913 wrote that "Sightless and old and unable to make a living by other means than music, he was obliged, like many another unfortunate Irish minstrel, to take refuge in the poorhouse as his only escape from starvation."

The intervention of the Gaelic League caused him to participate in the Feis Ceol of 1901 in Dublin, where he won first prize in the piper's competition. His performance - under the heading Large Concert Hall of the Rotunda - was described in a Dublin newspaper as follows:

"A notable incident was the playing of Mr.