| Biography | Francis J. McPeake (born 1885, Belfast, Northern Ireland - 1971) was Northern Irish uilleann piper.
When his daughter Mary died at the age of 19, around 1939, and his wife the year after, McPeake put his pipes away under the table. But in July 1952, Peter Kennedy, as part of the BBCs Folksongs of Britain collecting scheme that had been initiated by Alan Lomax, visited Belfast. Kennedy sought out Frank McPeake and his son, Francis, who had been born in 1917 and had been playing pipes since about 1935, resulting in a number of concert performances.
McPeake went on to form the McPeake trio alongside his sons Francis and James to wide acclaim, even performing for President Johnson at the White House. |