My Irish Harp

The harp, the symbol of Ireland. We see it all around us every day, on our passports, on our coins, even on the branding of our famous stout and yet there was a time, not so very long past, when ‘the harp that once through Tara’s Halls’ was seldom heard in this country.  The name Caroline Townshend is known to only a handful of people in Ireland but if any deserves to be a household name, surely it is hers, for it almost entirely due to her efforts that the ancient Irish harping tradition became firmly re-established. Singer with a clàrsach by Cathleen Mann (1896--1959) In ‘Our Musical Heritage’, the late Seán Ó Riada wrote: "At the end of the nineteenth century, attempts were made once more…..to get the true ancient harping tradition going again, but by this time the nature of the tradition had been forgotten. It was not until the early nineteen twenties, when a Miss Townsend (sic) of Castletownsend (sic) in County Cork put her mind to it, that any progress was made." A sign...

The title of my blog is 'My Irish Harp' and now I would like to introduce you to my instrument. And of course being an Irish harp, it has a story to tell! This beautiful instrument was made to order for me by Brian Callan of Callan Harps in Craughwell, Co Galway, Ireland. I came across his harps quite by accident when my sister decided to help me in my quest for a suitable instrument. By some incredible coincidence, his workshop is located not far from the home of my harping ancestors, the   O’Lonergan's ! I checked out the website and video clips and knew right away that this was the harp for me and I need look no further.  This particular harp is made, like all his harps, from various types of native Irish timbers. The sound board is spruce, the sound box is made of spalted beech and the neck and pillar are fashioned from rippled sycamore. The rib - that is the strip of wood which runs along the centre of the soundboard - is made of six thousand year old bog oak, carbo...

An Irish harper in exile, circa 1750, artist unknown This is a brief history of my ancestors the Cruitiri Uí Longargain – sadly forgotten for many hundreds of years. However, a little of their story emerged during my sister's search for our maternal grandmother's ancestors. As a child of ten I sat at a harp in the local school I attended, put the harp back on my shoulder and began to try and pick out a tune by playing the harp with my nails. Nobody knew where I got this from as, despite being a musical family, not one single person in the family had ever played the harp or indeed remembered anyone who did. A few years ago, my sister, who has a great interest in family history, having finished with my father's side, moved on to my mother's and began to research the Lonergans. She uncovered the initial link and I then carried on, trying to put a bit more flesh on the bones, so to speak. Excuse the pun! The name Lonergan comes from the Irish name Longargain, which in o...