This is a list of scholarly articles relating to the Gaelic harp. If you think I have missed any out, please let me know and I'll be pleased to add them to the list.

Most of these are out of print and unavailable to purchase. However they should be available to consult in a good academic or university library.

Paul Adam and Léon Jéquier ‘L'armorial Wijnbergen (fin)’ Archives Héraldiques Suisses LXVIII, 1954
The concluding part of this edition of the Wijnberg Armorial includes a description and photograph of the earliest known use of an Irish harp in heraldry. (pl. VII and p. 75)

Brian Audley ‘A newly discovered portrait of Patrick Quin, the harper, c. 1745 - 1812’ Treoir (Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann) Vol 26 No. 4, 1994
A black-and-white reproduction of a watercolour portrait of Quin, now in the Ulster Museum, Belfast, and some notes about his life.

John Bannerman ‘The Clàrsach and the Clàrsair’ Scottish Studies vol. 30 no. 3, 1991
A useful overview of the instrument and the people who played it in the Highlands of Scotland.

Charles D. Bell ‘Notice of two ancient harps and targets’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol XV, 1880-81
A useful description and history of the Queen Mary and Lamont harps when they first came to the Museum.

Michael Billinge and Bonnie Shaljean ‘The Dalway or Fitzgerald harp (1621)’ Early Music, Vol XV no. 2, May 1987
An analysis of the Cloyne harp and a reconstruction of its partially chromatic tuning, along with an overview of other evidence for chromatic Gaelic harps.

Seóirse Bodley ‘Technique and structure in “Sean-Nós” singing&rsquo Éigse Cheol Tire vol 1, 1972-3
An interesting and useful overview of 'Old-Style' Gaelic singing.

Barra Boydell ‘The Iconography of the Irish harp as a National Symbol’ in Irish Musical Studies 5 ed. P.F. Devine & H. White 1996.
An interesting and well illustrated overview of how a harp, whether based more or less on real examples or freely imagined, has been used as a symbol of Ireland over the centuries.

Padraig A. Breathnach ‘A musical link between dán and amhrán’. Ceol, Vol IV no. 4, 1981
A comparison between these two forms of Irish poetry/song, with suggestions that the musical performance styles may be linked.

Alan Bruford ‘The Sea-Divided Gaels - Some Relationships between Scottish Gaelic, Irish and English Traditional Songs’ Éigse Cheol Tire vol 1, 1972-3
A useful look at some songs and tunes which appear in English, Scottish and Irish sources, such as Cailín ó chois tSiúire mé.

Alan Bruford ‘Song and recitation in early Ireland’ Celtica 21, 1990. Read it online (pdf)
An in-depth look at the way in which Irish poetry/song would have been sung and accompanied by the Gaelic harp.

Andrea Budgey ‘Commeationis et affinitatis gratia: Medieval musical relations between Scotland and Ireland’ in R. Andrew McDonald (ed.) History, Literature and Music of Scotland University of Toronto Press 2002
An exellent overview of many aspects of musical interaction betweem Scotland and Ireland, centered on the writings of Gerald of Wales.

Ewan Campbell ‘Were the Scots Irish?’ Antiquity 75, 2001.
I am putting this article here even though it has no musical content whatsoever, because it deals in an extremely lucid way with one of our main concerns, that is the relationship between Ireland and the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Cambell takes the dominant idea of Irish 'colonies' in Scotland head-on, arguing that Ireland and the Highlands and Islands have always been a Gaelic archipelago. Read it online.

Simon Capp ‘Historic Harps - a Makers Eye View’ Aspects of the Historic Harp 1992
Some interesting comments and observations about baroque Italian harps, which can provide some background to the wider historical harp scene.
Available from the Emporium

Nicholas Carolan ‘Two Irish harps in Co. Dublin’ Ceol, Vol VII, December 1984
A brief description and photographs of two previously unnoticed 18th century instruments.

Nicholas Carolan ‘Philip O'Sullivan Beare on Irish Music’ Éigse Cheol Tíre / Irish Folk Music Studies vols. 5-6, 1986 - 2001
Extensive quotes with translations from Philip's two early 17th century books, including some important comments on Gaelic harps and harpers.

Patrick L. Cooney ‘Drogheda Harp Society’ Journal of the Old Drogheda Society 1976 p. 38-40
A short and curious note of the harp & temperance society set up in Drogheda in the early 1840s. A teacher was brought from Belfast and there were 15 or 16 students; harps were made by a Drogheda carpenter. The quotes concentrate much more on the temperance side of things and it is not clear what kind of harps were used. More research is needed.

John Cunningham ‘‘some Consorts of Instruments are sweeter than others’: Further Light on the Harp of William Lawes's Harp Consorts’ Galpin Society Journal LXI, 2008, p.147-176
This article lists and compares the notes required to play each of the pieces in Lawes's early 17th century compositions, and suggests how a harp to play them might be tuned. There is also some discussion of the nature of the sources, and of what kind of harp was intended - this author favouring a chromatic Irish harp.

Seán Donnelly ‘'Feaghan Geleash'’ Ceol Tíre 25, 1984
Some background to the 'tuning prelude' collected by Edward Bunting from Denis O'Hampsey.

Seán Donnelly ‘An Irish harper in the Royal Musick’ Ceol, Vol VI no. 2, April 1984
A brief look at the career of Cormac MacDermott

Seán Donnelly ‘The Irish harp in England 1590-1690’ Ceol, Vol VII, December 1984
An overview of the historical evidence for the use of the Gaelic harp in England in the 17th century.

Seán Donnelly ‘An Irish harper and composer - Cormac MacDermott (?-1618)’ Ceol vol VIII , July 1986
A detailed look at Cormac's life, including musical examples.

Seán Donnelly ‘Cranngha(i)l 'a sound or effect in music'’ Celtica 22, 1991 Read it online
A short article on a musical term.

Seán Donnelly ‘An Eighteenth-Century minister and piper’ Ulster Folklife, Vol 46, 2000
A look at Edward Sterling (1706-62), his music and associates including Arthur O'Neill and other harpers.

Seán Donnelly ‘A Cork Musician at the Early Stuart Court: Daniel Duff O'Cahill (c. 1580 - c.1660), 'The Queen's Harper'’ Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol 105, 2000
This biography of Daniel Duff O'Cahill also summarises and updates Seán's work on the Irish harp in England and discusses the chromatic Cloyne harp and its background.

Sean Donnelly ‘The Captain and the Harper - Two Mayo Brothers of Elizabethan Times’ Cathair na Mart, Journal of the Westport Historical Society No. 23, 2003
An account of the exploits of harper Richard Barret in Elizabethan high society.

Seán Donnelly ‘The Famousest Man in the World for the Irish Harp’ Dublin Historical Record vol LVII No. 1 Spring 2004
An investigation into the performances of Mr. Murphy in 18th century Dublin, with some comments on links between Gaelic and classical music.

Seán Donnelly ‘The ‘Whip of Dunboyne’ and other Irish dance tunes from Tudor and Stuart Leinster’ Ossory, Laois & Leinster 3, 2008

James F. Dunne and Lucy McCaffrey ‘O'Cahan, the Blind Harper of Johnston Hall’ Folk Harp Journal 47, Dec 1984
An interesting investigation into a harper, John Kain, who went out to America in 1766. The authors suggest that this is the same person as Michael Keane whose emigration is described in the memoirs of Arthur O'Neill.

Máire Egan ‘Reflections on Ogham and the Irish harp’ Éigse, Vol. XIX part 2, 1983
A response to Sean O'Boyle's 1980 book Ogam the poets' secret this article outlines various European musical backgrounds to the tuning of the Gaelic harp.

Robert Evans ‘A copy of the Downhill harp’ Galpin Society Journal no. 50, 1997
An account of the constrution of Bob Evans' and Guy Flockhart's replicas of Denis O'Hampsey's 'Downhill' harp.

Fanny Feehan ‘Suggested links between Eastern and Celtic music’ in The Celtic Conciousness ed. R. O'Driscoll, 1981.
Only suggestions are presented but there are some interesting ideas and personal observations here.

Robert Hadaway ‘A knot of harp strings’ Early Music, Vol. 11 no. 1, January 1983.
A discussion of the tunings of Gaelic harps, with especial reference to chromatic tunings in the 17th century, evidenced by the Praetorius engraving and the Cloyne harp. See also Ann Buckley's letter in vol. 11 no. 3 , July 1983, and Robert Hadaway's response in vol. 11 no. 4, October 1983.

Janet Harbison ‘The Legacy of the Belfast Harpers' Festival, 1792’ Ulster Folklife vol. 35, 1989
Although written from the point of view of a lever harp player in the contemporary neo-Irish harp tradition, this article is very interesting in the way it contrasts the two diferent legacies of Bunting's work: the romantic music of his published works and Moore's Irish Melodies and the unpublished manuscript collections. Includes rare facsimiles of pages from Bunting's manuscripts.

Sally Harper ‘So how many Irishmen went to Glyn Achlach? Early accounts of the formation of Cerdd Dant’ Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 42, Winter 2001.
An investigation into the semi-mythical Irish origins of Welsh 'Cerdd Dant' harp music.

Ann and Charlie Heymann ‘Cláirseach: the lore of the Irish harp’ Éire-Ireland XXVI no.3, fall 1991
A concise but full exposition of Ann and Charlie's theories regarding the sacred and mystical symbolism of the Gaelic harp's construction, tuning and playing.

Ann and Charlie Heymann ‘Strings of Gold’ The Historical Harp Society Journal, Vol. XIII no.3, Summer 2003, pps. 9-15.
Ann and Charlie set out the historical evidence and the practical need for experiments with precious metal strings in the bass of low-headed Gaelic harps. Read the article online.

Peter Holman ‘The Harp in Stuart England - New light on William Lawes's Harp Consorts’ Early Music, Vol XV no. 2, May 1987
A strong argument that William Lawes was writing for a chromatic Gaelic harp, and some notes on other evidence for the use of the Gaelic harp in England. See alo Layton Ring's letter in vol. XV no.4, November 1987.

Sandra Joyce ‘An Introduction to O'Carolan's Music in Eighteenth-Century Printed Collections’ in Irish Musical Studies 4 ed. P.F. Devine & H. White 1996.
This article includes some discussion of the basses in some of the printed editions, and considers whether or not they may reflect original harp basses. Includes a number of facsimile pages.

Sara C Lanier ‘"It is new-strung and shan't be heard": nationalism and memory in the Irish harp tradition’ in British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 8, 1999
An intriguing look at the way in which the historical wire-strung Irish harp, and its music collected by Edward Bunting, is treated as a symbol, and the way in which this clashes with attempts to revive it as a performing musical instrument. Read an extract.

Terence McCaughey ‘The Performing of Dán’ Eriu, Vol XXXV, 1984
An investigation into how old Gaelic poetry may have been performed, based on percieved similarities and differences from the living tradition. Harp accompaniment is mentioned briefly.

Aiken McClelland ‘The Irish Harp Society’ Ulster Folklife, Vol 21, 1975
A detailed look at the Irish Harp Society of Belfast, and the people involved with it between 1808 and 1840. Contains some interesting quotes from accounts, correspondence and minute-books.

Christopher Macklin ‘Approaches to the use of iconography in historical reconstruction, and the curious case of Renaissance Welsh harp technique’ Early Music Vol. 35, No. 2, May 2007
abstract online
Appears to be trying to use raw statistics to interpret iconography, but has many errors of fact and methodological problems.

Raghnall MacilleDhuibh ‘A Game of Chinese Whispers’, West Highland Free Press c. June 2002
This newspaper column by Ronald Black investigates the song Cailín ó Chois t-Siúir Mé, tracing its words from Shakespeare to Gaelic waulking songs via some Irish poems. A very solid account of an interesting and otherwise neglected area. Unfortunately (as it is a newspaper column) there are no references or footnotes.

Cuthbert McGrath ‘Two Skilful Musicians’ Eigse 7, 1953-5
Poems on Eoghan Ó hAllmhuráin and Nioclás Dall.

Colette Moloney ‘Style and Repertoire in the Gaelic Harp Tradition: Evidence from the Bunting Manuscripts and Prints’ in Irish Musical Studies 4 ed. P.F. Devine & H. White 1996.
This article presents much the same material as is given in greater depth in the introduction of her 2000 ‘Introduction and Catalogue’.

Colm O Baoill ‘Some Irish Harpers in Scotland’ Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 47, 1970-72, p.143-171
A look at the lives of Ruairí Dall O Catháin, Thomas O Connellan, Echlin O Catháin, and Denis O Hampsey.

Colm Ó Baoill ‘Alexander Grant, 4th of Shewglie’ The Society of West Highland and Island Notes and Queries No. 23, March 1984.
A reply to Keith Sanger's article of the previous year including details of poems and manuscripts.

Colm Ó Baoill ‘Moving in Gaelic musical circles - the root lu- in music terminology’ Scottish Gaelic Studies 19, 1999
A technical discussion of words built on lu mostly Gaelic pipe terms but also including barrluth, casluth and glasluth from Bunting's list of Irish harp terms.

Colm Ó Baoill ‘Highland Harpers and their Patrons’ in James Porter (ed.) Defining Strains: The Musical Life of Scots in the Seventeenth Century. Studies in the History and Culture of Scotland 2, Peter Lang, Berne, 2007
An investigation of the hereditary harpers, and the ssocial structures in which harpers worked. Part of a book of very useful essays. Available from the Emporium.

Colm Ó Baoill ‘Two Irish Harpers in Scotland’ in James Porter (ed.) Defining Strains: The Musical Life of Scots in the Seventeenth Century. Studies in the History and Culture of Scotland 2, Peter Lang, Berne, 2007
A revised version of the first half of Colm's 1970-2 paper, with biographical details of Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin and Thomas Connellan. Part of a book of very useful essays. Available from the Emporium.

Diarmaid Ó Catháin ‘Revd Charles Bunworth of Buttevant, Patron of Harpers and Poets’ Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 102, 1997
An interesting article about the harper Bunworth, including a photo of his harp and of his house. After his death his servants notoriously burnt his extensive collection of early Irish harps for firewood.

Breandán Ó Madagáin ‘Irish vocal music of lament and syllabic verse’ in The Celtic Conciousness ed. R. O'Driscoll, 1981.
A detailed investigation into the different types of funereal music.

Réamonn Ó Muirí ‘A 1798 Court Martial With Reference to Arthur O'Neill, Harper’ Seanchas Ard Mhacha Vol 12, No. 2, 1987
The full text, with commentary, of a court case brought by Arthur O'Neill's brother against the captain of a group of soldiers who burnt the brother's house and killed his wife. Arthur's harp and son were in the house and are mentioned in the testimonies.

John H. Pierse ‘Nicholas Dall Pierse of Co. Kerry, Harper’ Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society No. 6, 1973.
A biography of the 17th century harper Nicholas Pierce, who was credited with 'compleating said Instrument with more wires than ever before' this article also looks at the development of the Irish harp and discusses possible interpretations of the Cloyne fragments.

Joan N Radner ‘'Men will die': Poets, Harpers and Women in Early Irish Literature’ in A. T. E. Matonis and Daniel F.Melia (eds), Celtic Language, Celtic Culture California 1990

Joan Rimmer ‘James Talbot's manuscript: VI. Harps’ Galpin Society Journal no. 16, 1963
An annotated transcription of Talbot's notebook of c. 1690, including his observations and measurements of at least two Gaelic harps.

Joan Rimmer ‘The morphology of the Irish harp’ Galpin Society Journal no. 17, 1964
This article sets out Joan's classification of the surviving instruments, and includes other observations as well as detailed measurements of the Lamont, Kildare and Sirr harps.

Joan Rimmer ‘Patronage, style and structure in the music attributed to Turlough Carolan’ Early Music, Vol XV no. 2, May 1987
This article traces the people and musical influences behind some of Carolan's compositions, with musical examples.

Joan Rimmer ‘Harp function in Irish eulogy and complaint - two late examples’ Galpin Society Journal no. 50, 1997
An interesting but unconvincing attempt to set words to music from early printed and manuscript sources, based on the idea that the measure and barlines of the tunes are later distortions, and that they should be understood as a free song interspersed with harp melismas.

Alasdair Ross ‘'Harps of Their Owne Sorte'? A Reassessment of Pictish Chordophone Depictions’ Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 36, Winter 1998
This article is an interesting reconsideration of the material covered in the second chapter of Keith Sanger and Alison Kinnaird's 1992 book Tree of Strings but it ranges much more widely to consider the international organological and art-historical as well as the local historical contexts for early medieval stone sculptures of stringed instruments in Scotland, with important implications for our understanding of the origins of the Gaelic harp.

Keith Sanger ‘An attempt to reintroduce the Highland harp 1784-1786’ Notes and Queries of the Society of West Highland and Island Historical Research no. XVII, March 1982
Discussion of the letters and accounts of the Highland Society of London.

Keith Sanger ‘Alexander Grant, 4th of Shewglie’ The Society of West Highland and Island Notes and Queries No. 20, March 1983.
Some notes on the life of this piper, fiddler and harper. See also Colm Ó Baoill's reply in no. 23, March 1984.

Keith Sanger ‘The McShannons of Kintyre: Harpers to Tacksmen’ The Scottish Genealogist vol 38 no 3, Sept 1991 (originally published in the Kintyre Magazine)
Details of the 16th and 17th century genealogy and landholdings of this family of hereditary harpers.

Keith Sanger ‘An Irish harper in an English graveyard?’ Irish Music, Vol. 2 1994
A photograph and description of the grave-slab at Heysham, and some thoughts on its background.

Keith Sanger ‘Elouis, The Edinburgh Years’ Unpublished typescript, 1996
Elois was a pedal harp teacher, who played on the Queen Mary Harp when it was re-strunng for the Highland Society in 1805. This article details his time living and working in Edinburgh.

Keith Sanger ‘From Taynish to West Meath - a musical link?’ West Highland Notes and Queries series 3 no. 4 August 2002
A trail of people, families and cultural contacts between Scotland and Ireland.

Keith Sanger ‘'For the Scottes Musicke'’ Kilt & Harp Scottish harp Society of America, Forthcoming (2006?)

Keith Sanger and Alison Kinnaird, ‘Harps in Scotland’, in John Beech, Owen Hand, Fiona MacDonald, Mark A. Mulhern, and Jeremy Weston (eds) Scottish Life and Society, A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, Volume 10, Oral Literature and Performance Culture published by John Donald in association with the European Ethnological Research Centre and National Museums Scotland, 2007
This chapter in a very useful volume summarises the outline of their book "Tree of Strings" with some new developments and discoveries added in. Available from the Emporium.

William Sayers ‘The Bound and the Binding: The Lyre in Early Ireland’ in G. W. MacLennan (ed), Proceedings of the first North American Congress of Celtic Studies Ottawa 1998

Seán Ua Súilleabháin and Seán Donnelly ‘'Music has ended': the death of a harper’ Celtica, Vol 22, 1991 Read it online (pdf)
Some discussion of a poem, a lament for Conchubar Mac Conghalaigh, early 17th century harper to Domhnall Ó Donnabháin

Derick S Thomson ‘The Harlaw Brosnachadh’ Celtic Studies: Essays in memory of Angus Matheson (1912 - 1962). Routledge & Kegan paul, 1968
An edition of the 15th century poem, which may be connected with the various pipe and harp tunes of the same name.

Gráinne Yeats ‘Some thoughts on Irish harp music’ Ceol, Vol IV no. 2, December 1973
Some interesting and thoughtful notes on the nature of the old Gaelic harp music and suggestions (from the very start of the revival) on how it could be played by modern harpers. Includes some musical examples.

Gráinne Yeats ‘The Rediscovery of Carolan’ in Integrating Tradition: The Achievement of Seán O Riada ed. Bernard Harris & Grattan Freyer, Irish Humanities Center & Keohanes, 1981
This, a single chapter in a book celebrating Seán's life, covers some similar ground to Gráinne's web article The Rediscovery of Carolan but also contains other material on Seán O Riada and the Gaelic harp.

Many thanks to Keith Sanger and Seán Donnelly who have pointed out many of these articles to me.

Ordering instructions: I carry a number of Gaelic harp books and CDs in stock at the Emporium. You can order them from right here on the listings pages by selecting your postage rate and clicking 'add to cart'. Postage will be charged at the rate shown and calculated by the shopping cart. Alternatively you can save a bit on postage if you call or email me to discuss what you want - I am happy to try and source out-of-print or hard-to-find items not currently in stock. Go to the Emporium homepage for more details.

I also will buy secondhand copies of many of these items. Contact me with details of what you have and we can discuss terms.

Simon Chadwick