Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland

A female instrument
The symbolic value of the harp in Ireland – it had been selected by the United Irishman
as a symbol of nationhood – meant that the instrument would never be entirely
neglected, but there were no entrants for the Feis Ceoil competition for the harp
in the 1890s. The Gaelic League, which had been established in 1893, subsequently
purchased several instruments in order to try and encourage more practitioners.
Convent schools played a central role at the turn of the twentieth century in continuing
to teach the harp. A Mother Attracta Coffey produced the first tutor for the Irish harp
in 1903, and, concurrently, the harp-maker James McFall in Belfast further refined the
style and make of the Irish harp.
For the first four decades of the twentieth century, the Irish harp was taught by a small
number of teachers, and the number of practitioners remained correspondingly small.
While the harp was traditionally a male instrument – and often an occupation for the
blind – it became an instrument associated with women over the course of the nineteenth
century, a practice that was continued with its teaching in girls’ schools.
Revival
The revival of both the uilleann pipes and the Irish harp was a core aim of Comhaltas
Ceoltóirí Éireann when it was established in 1951.
In the late 1950s, a number of female Irish harpers, notably Mary O’Hara, came to
public prominence for performing song with harp accompaniment.
A gap existed, however, between the traditonal music that was becoming increasingly
popular among a new generation at fleadhanna ceoil organised by Comhaltas, and
the style, practice and repertoire of the Irish harp.
When Seán Ó Riada established his group Ceoltóirí Chualann in 1960, he rejected the
modern Irish harp in favour of the harpsichord – it was his attempt at recreating the
sound of the early Irish harp tradition. Ó Riada did, however, awaken a new interest
in the music of Turlough Carolan.
Cairde na Cruite (‘Friends of the Harp’) was established in 1960 to promote the harp
through performance, education and publication, and in 1975 published The Irish Harp
Book by Sheila Larchet Cuthbert. This seminal publication contained lessons in harp
technique as well as a range of studies, exercises and arrangements by contemporary
Irish composers.
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