Bandmaster of the Cavan Militia, Haliday invented the keyed bugle, which he patented in 1810 (Dudgeon, New Grove), registered as 'Halliday's [sic] Improvements in the Musical Instrument called the Bugle Horn' (Lasocki).

Lasocki asserts (citing personal correspondece with Dudgeon) that 'there is no surviving evidence that Haliday made instruments himself'.

[There is much confusion regarding the patent rights to the keyed bugle. Apparently, when Haliday moved to Dublin in 1816, he discovered Logier and others making keyed bugles without authorisation and published a booklet to discredit Logier (Dudgeon, New Grove). An 1815 article in Allemeine musikalische Zeitung, translated by David Lasocki, stated that 'Mr. Logier & Co. have a patent'. Dudgeon's JAMIS article, states that Haliday was possibly cheated by his lawyer Robert Tilly and is also believed to have sold the patent rights to Matthew Pace for £50. However, Lasocki's article provides an account of Court of Chancery transcripts relating to a claim of violations of the patent, unsuccessfully brought by George Collins. They detail that: Haliday invented the keyed bugle in late 1809; the bugle major of the Cavan Regiment showed it to Matthew Pace who purchased "the secret" from him for £50 and made one; Haliday made contact with Smollet Holden to sell him "the secret" and to procure a patent for it; as Holden wasn’t a manufacturer, Pace was approached, and as he already possessed “the secret” an agreement was made between them to put the patent in Holden’s name, Pace would be paid to manufacturer the instruments, and the profits would be divided between Holden and Pace; Holden was unable to obtain the patent in his name, so it was put in Haliday’s. The date assignment of patent rights to Haliday’s lawyer Tilly are not ascertained in Court, but it was asserted that the standing arrangement was to remain. George Collins was assigned the patent in September 1818.]