The Following Information is From
John Pipe's Home Page

Louis Noble, Irish Warpiper

"I was born in Shenley, Herts ¹ , England on the 20th day of May, 1886. At the age of two years we moved into London and lived at 93 Gloucester Rd., Regents Park. I went to school at St. Marks School, Arlington Road, Camdentown until I was thirteen years old. I then attended St. Marylebone Higher Grade for one year. I was in St. Marks Church Choir as a boy and then as a man when I had a 2nd bass voice."

"It was while I lived in Gloucester Rd. I heard for the first time the Warpipers of the Scots Guards Pipe Band played by our house and I walked with them for about three miles; it must have made an impression on me. My father was musical and used to whistle jigs and Irish dance tunes. He also sang a few Irish songs -- gra ma chree ma Chruis Laun and The Protestant Boys . My mother had a sweet voice when she sang hymns."

"I was reared amongst English boys and although I was taken to Ireland when I was a school boy, I did not know very much about the history of the country, it was to the farm on the shores of Lough Neagh and near Shanes Castle."

"When I was seventeen I joined a volunteer regiment of rifles and after passing through the recruits training I went in a class to become an N.C.O. I passed with full marks and got my first stripe and in eighteen months I was a full Sergeant. I liked the life in camp and looked forward to going to camp each year. I spent five years in the regiment. When I was twenty-one years of age my parents bought a new house at a place called Kensal Rise, Willesden, NW London. One evening when I came home from work I found my mother having tea with a young man. She introduced me to him, a Liam O'Cuirnin, an Irishman born in London."

"He came to the house to get the lease signed by my mother and he asked her if she was Irish and when she answered yes he spent two hours talking about Ireland and Gaelic League and that there was to be An Aonach ² to be held in the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster London. Liam O'Cuirnin gave us some leaflets about the Aonach and I was the first in the hall when it was open. I also was there each evening from Tuesday to Saturday and during that time I was signed up as a new member of the London Gaelic League. My mother came as she was very interested in most things, particularly the four piece orchestra conducted by Miss Agnes MacHale. Mother knew some of the old melodies, also three pipers played on the Piob Mor. They only used two drones, which was the fashion in those days, with the few Irish Pipers that were in London. The names of the pipers were Harry Hough, Robert O'Shea and Cusack. O'Shea was the best piper of the three, but the most enthusiastic of the three was Harry Hough. O'Shea did not bother to buy a set of pipes for himself. I asked Harry Hough where I could learn to play and he welcomed me to come to the Pipers Club and soon I started to learn. I did not make much progress with him and I asked who had taught them."

"I was soon to know the story of the great man who started the club. He was known to most members of the Gaelic League as "An Paorac ³ ". The story of how he came to learn to play the Piob Mor is worth recording. He was in Ireland at the time that I joined the Pipers Club and it was from his teacher Donald McKay and MacKays father that I got the story of how An Paorac came to know Donald MacKay and how he became a pupil of that famous champion piper."

"It came about this way: every year on St. Patricks Day the London Gaelic League had a big concert in the Queens Hall, London, and sold a program at the concert, which was more than just a program, it was a annual magazine, full of articles about Ireland in Gaelic and English."

"One year An Paorac had an article on the Irish War Pipes and he also played a selection on the pipes. In the audience was Charlie MacKay and his son Donald, the famous Scottish Piper who had won the Inverness Gold Medal for Piobaireach (1903-- the tune he played was the famous Patrick Og McCrumens Lament ). On the suggestion of the father, Donald wrote to the Gaelic League offering to teach the piper who played at the concert. An Paorac took this fine opportunity and became a close friend of the MacKays."

"I was only a few weeks on the practice chanter when I went to have lessons from Donald MacKay and then I soon made progress, although my father at that time was not in favour of me going to the Gaelic League for lessons in Irish and to learn Irish Dancing. Well, one morning much to my surprise, my mother asked me how much would a set of pipes cost. I said "a lot of money, Mother " and that I had a lot to learn on the chanter. Her reply was that my father was getting very interested in the little tunes that I was learning, such as The Peeler and the Goat and Dorans Ass ."

"Mother then said I was to ask Donald MacKay to get the cost of a set of pipes. When I told mother the cost, she went and handed me the money and said "Your father wants you to get them as soon as possible"; well, I can hardly tell you how pleased my parents were when I was able to play on the big pipes and then every evening father and I would go out on the fields in near our house for practice. I was on the pipes only eighteen months when I went to Dublin for the Oireachtas ⁴ and won the Gold Medal, the first prize. When I returned to London, the members of the Pipers Club said I was to be Pipe Major."

"The names of some of the members of the Pipers Club that I remember were: Maurice O'Connell (Secretary), Liam O'Cuirnin, Rory O'Cuirnin, T. Daly, T. Dignan, J. Coaghlan, C. McGeogh Trimbal, Sean Howard, Dan MacCarthy."

"Record of the winners of the Piping -- Annual Oireachtas Competitions who were members of the Pipers Club :

"An Paorac", R. O'Shea, L. Noble [winner 1910 & 1914], J. Coughlan [1911], Maurice O'Connell [2nd prize 1912, 1913, 1st prize 1919]."

"The chief business of the Pipers Club was in the teaching of the Warpipes, also each pupil was trained as a Solo Piper. It was not intended to produce a pipe band, although we did play together. We looked at drums as a purely English instrument and had been introduced in Pipe Bands by the English, and were not used by Irish or Scottish pipers until after 1745. I think that to make it possible for the pipers to play as a band, the Warpipes was then for the first time that the chanter pitch was standardized to the same pitch as brass & reed bands."

"Early in the year 1914 Michael Collins came to me at the Pipers Club and asked me had I had military training and would I come to the German Gymnasium at St. Pancras Rd. There I trained the No. 1 Co. of the London Irish Volunteers, the following are the names of those that I can remember: Michael Collins, Maurice Sheahan, Sean Hurley, Sean & E. Nunan, Dan Sheahan, M. Cremins, John O'Brien, Francis Fitzgerald, Con Crowley, Padraig O'Conaire, Joe & Matt Furlong, there were seventy-seven names on my roll."

"I would like to state now that the London Gaelic League encouraged me in every way to teach & play the pipes. Our small Pipers Club were able to supply a number of pipers for the annual St. Patricks Concert at the Queens Hall. Maurice O'Connell who was secretary for over ten years and was a winner of the 1919 Oireachtas Gold Medal was also a very keen teacher. Also, I should say that one of our best pipers was Donald Foley of Tralee & Kilorglin, Co. Kerry. I might say that I helped to start the Tralee Pipe Band, we practiced in the Rink. I also was the teacher of the Dublin Tramway Pipe Band; my best pupil was John Keogh who came from the Glenn of Immal, Co. Wicklow, and his son Pipe Major T. Keogh of the Fintan Lalor Pipe Band is now I think the best Irish Piper in the city of Dublin. He was a pupil of the famous Alex Meikle, a Scottish piper who trained a number of bands in the city of Dublin and raised the standard of piping to a very high degree."

"I may at this point state that I have adjudicated at the following Feisanna: Newcastle Co.Down, Ballygawley and Fintona, Co.Tyrone, Father Mathews Feis in Cork. Also at the Annual Aeridheach ⁵ held at the Garda Depot 1928, 1929 and 1930. Tailtain Games 1924, also a number of times for the Annual Oireachtas ."

"I was the piper who played the lament at the Bi-Centenary Celebration of the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, organized by the Dublin Wicklowmens Association at Glasnevin Cemetery. Also I led the procession to Michael O'Dwyers Cottage when they laid an inscribed stone at place where the cottage stood."

"It was when I was performing on the pipes at the Tralee that I met the lady that was to become my wife. We were married at St. Johns, Tralee, Sept 4, 1912. We have five children -- two boys, three daughters and five grandchildren."

"I also organized the pipers in the Sham Battle in Glenmalure for the Dublin Wicklow Mens Association."

I was also instrumental in getting the Six County Bands to come to Dublin for Annual Competitions for the All Ireland Pipe Band Championships. While working in Belfast during the war I got to know Mr. Rollins the Secretary of the Northern Band Association and when I put it to him that when the war would be over, the pipe bands should get together for competitions he was enthusiastic about it."

¹ Official abbreviation for Hertfordshire
² un ayn-ohck , "the fair"
³ un pehr-ack , a nickname, believed to be a corruption of piobareachd (peeb-rock) "pipe music"
⁴ or-ochtuhs , "competition", or "festival"
⁵ According to a response from an inquiry to the official AN SÍOCHÁNA GARDA website: "The word "Aeridheach" would appear to be the same word as "Aeraiocht" which basically means open-air entertainment."

Obituary from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

L.P. Noble, Bagpipe Player

Louis P. Noble, 84, 92 McEwen Road, Greece, a noted bagpipe player for more than 50 years, died yesterday (Aug. 11,1970) in Genesee Hospital.

Mr. Noble, a native of England, had played his pipes at the Royal Albert Hall in London and won the 1910 and 1914 bagpipe championships of Ireland.

He helped found the Celtic Pipe Band of Rochester and taught bagpipe playing.

He moved to the United States in 1947.

He was a member of the Greece Folk Society, the Wexford Men's Association in New York City, and St. Charles Borromeo Church in Greece.

In England he belonged to the Gaelic League and at age 17 was a sergeant in the British Army.

He had worked as an electrical contractor in England.

Photographs of Louis Noble, 1909 to 1963

Louis Noble in the Irish Volunteers

"I, Louis P. Noble Joined The Gaelic League In London In Oct. 1908, and started to learn to play the Warpipes in July 1909. I won the Solo Championship of Ireland at the Rotunda in August, 1910. I was then made Pipe Major of the London Irish Pipers Club. In March, 1914 Michael Collins and Maurice Sheahan came to me at the Pipers Club and asked me to take charge of the drilling and instruction of the First Company of the Irish Volunteers then being formed at the German Gymnasium, St. Pancras Road, London, NW. They knew I held a proficiency Certificate for Drill and Musketry from the English Volunteers. I had in my Company men who were to make history in Ireland, I can remember a number of them: Michael Collins, Maurice Sheahan, Sean Hurley, Sean and E. Nunan, Dan Sheehan, M. Cremins, J. O'Brien, Francis Fitzgerald, Con Crowley, Padraig O'Conaire, Joe and Matt Furlong; there were seventy-seven names on my roll. After the split in volunters I carried out training at Highgate Woods and Hammersmith."

"At this time I was a skilled Workman in the Post Office Engineering Dept., and on the outbreak of the War in 1914 I was put in charge of the Telephones and Telegraphs of the War Office, Admiralty and Air Defences of London, and many a time after drilling and teaching musketry to the Irish Volunteers I would go on duty for the night at Whitehall. Sometime in November 1915 I was reported to my Superintending Engineer, Mr. Moir, by the Secretary of the Admiralty as being dangerous and I was removed out of the War Office and Admiralty and sent to Mayfair Telephone Exchange, where I was so degraded in position and watched and reported on by the men in charge that I decided to resign from the Post Office and give up 13 years pensionable service."

"I left in January 1916 and obtained employment as Works Electrician at C.A. Vandervell & Co., Acton. While there I joined the Works Fire Brigade which left me in a good position to obtain munitions for the Irish Volunteers; being on duty as Electrician Fireman I had access to all stores, and as this firm was making hand grenades and magnetos, I was able to obtain special wire for Art O'Brien to send to Dublin for the construction of wireless instruments. While there I obtained several good revolvers, autos and shotguns from men who had other friends in Farnbrough Air Ship factory. I was at C.A. Vandervell & Co., about two years, then I went to the Aircraft Manufacturing Co., Hendon and Tilbury Docks, His Majesty's Office of Works, Orange St. Westminster, East India Docks and Magneto Time Co., Westminster. While employed I was able to obtain munitions for Art O'Brien and Sean McGrath. In September 1919 I decided to get to Ireland at all costs, so I put all my home into a repository at Hammersmith and then went to Belfast. I stopped there with James McCann, and Art Agnew who was a 1916 man from Liverpool who introduced me to Sean O'Neill, who after writing to Michael Collins about me admitted me into the I.R.A. I was made Adjutant of the Engineers Co. with Andy Furlong as O.C. I carried out training and instruction work with infantry and engineers on Divis Mountain and at Straid, Co. Antrim. While in Belfast I worked in the ship yard and was discharged with other Catholics."

"I then obtained work for the Western Union Cable Co., Valentia Island, Co. Kerry. In Valentia there was no unit of the I.R.A. functioning and all I could do was work with the Pipes, playing at G.A.A. matches and at concerts for national organizations. I completed my work at Valentia before the truce was over and my wife and children and I left Valentia Island by boat for Cork being 19 hours on the sea."

"As soon as I arrived in Dublin I joined 5th Battalion and was posted to No. 2 Company. I was at once ordered to teach drill and attended at Drill Parades at Killester. I was appointed to represent my Company at the Dublin Brigade Conference at 44 Parnell Square. I was on the Freeman Office job and when the split in my company due to the treaty came I took charge of the company at Lourdes Home, Buckingham St. Tom Roche was O.C. then, but ha was on munitions and could not attend; when the Four Courts was attacked I reported to Liam O'Doherty at Morans Hotel. I was put in charge of basement kitchen and wine cellar, and took charge of a party to cut holes in the walls in the rear for the retreat. I then went with a party to the Gresham Hotel to Cathal Brugha; there I was engaged in making mines and on ambulance work, and on the fall of these positions I was wounded going to the assistance of Cathal Brugha."

"I was taken prisoner and marched to Amiens St. Station and from there I escaped, and going to St. Vincent Hospital for operation, I was incapacitated for about two months. Later I was able to get a small lodge at Santry and there with J. O'Connor I assisted in making munitions. J. O'Connor was arrested and I looked after tools, material and lathe keeping them safe until I returned them to the owner, George Plunkett."

Louis (seated, fourth from left) as Pipe Major, Irish Army pipe band

"In April, 1924 I joined the National Army as Instructor of Pipe Bands; I applied for Pension but was told that the Act did not apply to me as I was not in the Army in September, 1923; of course I did not give such information as I do here."

Louis Noble

"I finished work at the Valentia Island Cable Station and returned to Dublin and joined the 5th Battalion, Engineers, Irish Republican Army. Then, when the civil war started, I was with my commandant in a number of places, and I was wounded, and my commandant, whose name was Cathal Brugha, he died..., the same volley that I got killed him, and very soon after that when peace was declared I was invited to take charge of the pipers school in the National Army, and I took the job."

"I was in that job for five years, of which four was spent in the Army School of Music, and I had trouble with the German Director of Music, who was no friend of the bagpipes, and I was court martialed and posted to a band that I had formed some years before that, and I was posted to Limerick Barracks. There I went off of a nighttime to see the Germans building the huge power station on the Shannon River, and some rocks went up in the sky and came down and bounced and cracked the shinbone of my right leg, and after many years of trouble with the leg, to come up to this time now, I'm 82 years of age, I had the leg amputated and I'm sitting in a wheelchair telling this story, which is only half a story, I've heaps more to say."

Louis was born near, and grew up in London, England, of Irish parents (someone once told him that if he was born in England, he wasn't Irish, to which he responded "A cat may have kittens in the oven, but they're not biscuits!"), and had an English Accent . He was once challenged that his name didn't sound Irish, and responded that he had a Gaelic name, Luhidgh Mac An Usail (Louis, the son of the nobleman). His accent nearly got him killed several times; some of the taped interview is missing, but I remember these stories from it:

While a member of the I.R.A., but traveling in an Irish district where he was unknown, he was waiting for a train when the local I.R.A. men came and took the mail from the train to censor it. He chuckled, and attracted the attention of the men: "What are you laughing at?" Louis replied "Just watching the boys do their job." Upon hearing his accent, they jumped him, and they started marching him away under guard; he realized they meant to shoot him. He said "Take me to the school house." It meant nothing to them. "Take me to Pat Palmer [the local school master, and I.R.A. leader]". "Oh, you know Pat Palmer?" and the matter was soon cleared up without further incident.

Another time he was visiting an old friend (also I.R.A. in another district) he hadn't seen for quite some time. The man was a tailor, and when Louis entered his shop and greeted him, the man didn't show recognition and put his hand under the table. Louis said "Don't you remember Louis the piper?" The man responded "Oh, Louis Noble! I thought you were a British detective!", and brought out his hand and showed a pistol he had ready under the table; another close call!

Louis and the pipes