AHJ, Vol. 7 No. 1, Summer 1979

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Figure 3 Nancy Calthorpe at her Doorway on Fitzwilliam
Square, Dublin.
Another distinguished performer and teacher of the
Irish Harp is Grainne Yeats (Grainne Ni Eigheartaigh),
who is an authority on Irish folklore and performs
traditional Irish songs, singing to her owll' harp accompaniment.
She is the qau~hter of the well-known
historian, the late P. S. 0 Eigeartaigh. Her husband,
Senator Michael Yeats, is the only son of the late
William Butler Yeats. Grainne Yeats has toured extensively,
both in Europe and America and, recently, in
Japan where there is a flourishing interest in Irish Harp.
Mrs. Yeats is a graduate in History of Trinity College,
Dublin, and received her musical education at the Royal
Academy of Music, as well as privately.
Grainne and Michael Yeats' daughter, Caitriona
Yeats, continues the artistic tradition as a professional
harpist with the pedal harp. Caitriona Yeats was a prize
winner in the Fifth International Harp Contest held in
Jerusalem in September, 1973. She studied the concert
harp in Holland with Edward Witsenburg after early
harp study in Ireland. Caitriona spent some time in
Brookline, Massachusetts, recently, but is now living in
Sweden.
Charles Guard, a fine young harp player from the Isle
of Man, who plays Scots Gaelic music with the group,
The Whistle-binkies, is a student of Grainne Yeats.
Harpmakers
The "Tara Harp" made in Belfast in 1902 by James
MacFall for Cardinal Logue became the prototype for a
style of Irish harp made later by Waltons' of Dublin.
Waltons' presented this harp under the name "Bardic
Harp". The soundbox of the MacFall harp was shaped
like that of the pedal harp, with a rounded back, and the
harp was set upon little feet. The forepillar was bowed,
the head of the harp was high, and the whole thing
Figure 4 Celtic Harp by Walton, Dublin 1978
elaborately decorated with Celtic designwork. A ringtype
device for raising the pitch of the string was
mounted in the neck above each string. Strings were a
combination of gut in the treble and fine wire in the
bass. Waltons' Musical Instrument Galleries, a wellknown
music firm in Dublin, have recently produced a
new design, the "Celtic" Harp, with an improved string
and lever system of adjustable semitone blades. This
may be had with ornate Celtic design pokerwork, or
unadorned. The Walton harps are made on the premises
at their large store on North Frederick Street by harpmaker
Charles Jordan and his son. They also make
several smaller models. Mr. Patrick A. Walton, a Director
of the firm, takes a personal interest in the harp and
his daughter Aideen is currently studying the harp.
Quinn Harps
Other contemporary Irish harp makers are the Quinn
brothers, who formerly maintained a workshop on the
premises of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, but now
work out of their home. 8 During World War II, when
instruments and supplies were so very scarce, John
Quinn, an expert craftsman, was called upon frequently
by Professor Annie Faban, who taught harp at Sion Hill
Convent and also at the R.I.A.M., to repair the instruments
in her charg~. The head of the Music Department
at Sion Hill, Sister Angela, was intensely devoted
to the revival of the Irish harp, and she used to prevail
upon Quinn to accept harps for repair that were long
past their best and needed considerable skill and effort
to restore. When I visited their workshop in the fall of
1973 Patrick Quinn told me the story of how his brother
became a harpmaker:
"The idea for the Quinn Harp was born on the day
that Sister Angela sent John what he described as a 'bag
of bits' to repair. John remarked that it would be easier
to make a new harp than to repair this collection of
junk! With her usual charm Sister Angela challenged
SUMMER/ 1979
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