Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland

3.13 Organisations
The Irish harp scene has two societies, Cairde na Cruite and the Historical Harp Society
of Ireland, and a company dedicated to the harp, the Irish Harp Centre. Comhaltas
Ceoltóirí Éireann, through its branches and competitions, also plays a key role in the
Irish harp scene.
Cairde na Cruite
Established in 1960, Cairde na Cruite is a voluntary and well-established organisation
in the Irish harping community. It runs an annual festival, a spring and winter concert,
a publication programme, a harp rental scheme, and acts as an information source for
harpers.
A key part of Cairde na Cruite’s work is organising An Chúirt Chruitireachta, International
Festival for Irish Harp, the annual residential summer school and concert series that
takes place over six days in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth, and which is in its 29th year.
An Chúirt Chruitireachta consists of morning tuition, a range of afternoon talks,
workshops (including a try-the-harp initiative for the public), ‘focus on youth’ concerts,
and evening concerts with Irish and international artists. In 2014, there were 60 students
and 11 teachers. The concerts are attended by students, parents and members of the
public.
The evening concert programme is rich and diverse, focusing primarily on Irish lever
harp but in 2014 also featuring early Irish harp, concert harp, harp ensemble, artists
from England, Scotland and Denmark, popular and traditional singers with harp, and
group traditional singing.
The week is administered by the 11 teachers and takes place in An Grianán, a large
country house in a scenic setting.
Cairde na Cruite also acts as a conduit for information on the harp in Ireland, and
between practitioners (it has an email database of 654 and over 900 Facebook
friends), and has maintained a publication programme since 1975 (more details about
this aspect of its work are available in the Resources section on p. 69).
The committee also has a harp rental scheme: it owns six Irish lever harps that it rents
out, and when additional students require a harp at the summer school it liaises with
harp-makers to organise harp hire (11 harps were required in 2013).
Cairde na Cruite also organises a spring and Christmas concert, and members who are
teaching at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy also programme the harp recital.
Cairde na Cruite had an income of €58,712 in 2013, consisting of festival tuition fees
and concert tickets (62%), grants (19%), harp hire (6%), publication sales (3%) and
membership fees (1%). The majority of its income is spent on administering An Chúirt
Chruitireachta (75% – €43,897), with the remainder spent on the publication
programme, harp insurance and other administrative costs.
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