Francis McPeake, who has died aged 82, was a third-generation Irish uilleann piper in the Belfast-based McPeake family, attracting attention not only from the Irish traditional music community, but also the English folk music scene and the world of popular music. Francis III, to distinguish him from other members of the family, gave John Lennon a lesson on playing the pipes at a party for the Beatles, and the family’s music was also revered by Bob Dylan, Bono, Pete Seeger and Van Morrison.
The first piping McPeake was Francis I, who learned to play from John O’Reilly, a blind piper. Francis I won competitions and in 1910 attended the Pan-Celtic Congress in Brussels. At this time, there were very few pipers in Ulster and Francis’s rarity was enhanced by his unprecedented practice of playing the pipes to accompany his singing of traditional songs.
Francis I taught his son, Francis II, to play the pipes, and in 1952, Peter Kennedy, working for the BBC, recorded the father and son playing and singing. This led to a performance at the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s annual festival at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1953 where they were enthusiastically received. Although the instrument was rare in Irish traditional music, the London visit prompted the acquisition of a harp, which was played by Francis II’s brother, James. The trio visited the World Youth festival in Moscow in 1957, followed by first-prize success at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.
It was against this backdrop of the family’s increasing international fame, and their unique style of playing Irish music, pairing the harp and the pipes and singing, often in harmony, to their accompaniment, that Francis III took up the pipes in 1956, learning from his father.
The son of Mary (nee O’Sullivan) and Francis II, he was born in Tyrella, Co Down, where the family had been evacuated to during the second world war. When they returned home, to west Belfast, Francis III went to St Joseph’s school, and later worked in labouring jobs until he was able to take up music full-time.
He made his debut with the family group in 1962, with his sister Kathleen on harp and their cousin, Tommy McCrudden, also on pipes. The six musicians performed in a variety of permutations, with instrumentals, including the slow air An Coolin, and accompanied songs.
Songs such as The Jug of Punch, My Singing Bird, The Old Piper, Slieve Gallon Brae and The Verdant Braes of Skreen were enthusiastically received by the expanding folk club scene, particularly in England. Foremost among their songs was Wild Mountain Thyme, also known as Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?, which Francis I wrote following the death of his first wife, using fragments of an older song that originated in Scotland. This new song was recorded by Joan Baez, the Clancy Brothers, Morrison, Dylan, Judy Collins, the Byrds, Rod Stewart, Ed Sheeran and many more, and became an anthem of the British folk revival, often sung at the end of an evening.
In the 1960s Francis III and the family group toured Spain, the Netherlands, France and the US, as well as Britain and Ireland. Seeger had already filmed the family, including a youthful Francis, in Belfast in the early 60s, and in the US they appeared on television with Seeger and Baez. In 1967, at a party to celebrate the film Magical Mystery Tour, the McPeakes performed for the Beatles. Francis recalled that John Lennon was “enthralled” by the sound of the pipes and keen for Francis to teach him to play; Francis was impressed by his quick uptake.
The trio’s first album, The McPeake Family of Belfast (1959), was on the Prestige label, and in 1963 Topic Records released The McPeake Family with an extended play (EP) record, both featuring the wider family including Francis III: all the tracks were rereleased on the 2009 album Wild Mountain Thyme. Francis III contributed to three family albums on the Fontana label: Irish Folk! (1964), At Home With the McPeakes and Introducing the McPeake Family (both 1965). Pleasant and Delightful on the Fontana label followed in 1967.
After Francis I died in 1971, and with the growing Troubles in Northern Ireland, the family stopped touring. Francis III suffered an accident to his right hand which affected his playing ability. In 1977, Father McNiff of Clonard monastery in west Belfast asked Francis II and III to teach local youngsters to play the tin whistle to keep them off the streets during the Troubles. A six-week course developed into regular classes covering a variety of instruments, with Francis III taking the lead after his father’s death in 1986.
Hundreds of youngsters were taught to play at the Francis McPeake School of Music, and they swept the board at competitive festivals. Francis III continued to perform at the many concerts associated with the school, including their 21st anniversary in 1998 in the Ulster Hall.
In 2005 he joined Kathleen, McCrudden and his son Francis IV in concert at the Belfast Opera House. He performed many times with his son’s band, McPeake, including, in 2012, at the Milwaukee Irish festival and the BBC Proms in the Park at the Titanic Slipways, Belfast, performing Wild Mountain Thyme. The McPeake family tradition continues, with Francis’s grandson, Francis V, now playing the pipes.
Francis featured extensively in a 2023 film, The McPeake Family: In Their Own Words, directed by his other son, Eugene, which confirmed the central role of the McPeakes in the traditional music of Northern Ireland.
Francis is survived by his wife Sarah (nee Pinkey), sons Francis and Eugene, and grandchildren, Hannah, Rebecca, Lucia and Francis.
• Francis Joseph McPeake III, musician, born 30 April 1942; died 12 October 2024
