Of course the most important thing about both the old Gaelic harp tradition and its current revival are the people involved with it - without them there would be nothing else!

The old harpers are dead and gone, and most of them are forgotten. But I have started compiling a long list of old harpers. The most famous are perhaps Carolan and Rory Dall - they get their own pages!

The current revival is being driven by just a handful of key people. Most important of all is Ann Heymann who started from nothing over thirty years ago and who is still the best player and most learned scholar. Siobhán Armstrong is Ireland's top historical harpist, and runs the annual summer school devoted to the early Gaelic harp, Scoil na gCláirseach.

Replica harps need expert harpmakers. I have been most impressed by recent work from David Kortier in America, and Davy Patton in Ireland. The Wire Branch maintains larger but still incomplete lists of makers and players.

A good way to get involved is to join a society; the two main organisations dedicated to the Gaelic harp are the Wire Branch of the Clarsach Society, based in Scotland, and the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, based in Ireland.

On the internet there are three main discussion groups. Oldest, largest, and based in America, Wireharp covers modern folk harps with metal strings, as well as the old Gaelic traditions. Clairseach is smaller and more academic, focussing on the early Gaelic harp. It is owned by Alasdair Codona in Edinburgh. And in Ireland, Irishclairseach is used primarily to co-ordinate meet-ups and events in Ireland.

Simon Chadwick