Bilingual book

Anywhere you look in Ireland, you cannot avoid the Trinity College Harp. It is used as the official emblem of Ireland. It is synonymous with Irish revolution, culture and a famous black beer. Its unique Irish shape adorns the coats of arms and passports of four different nations!

The Irish didn’t just play harps. For nearly a thousand years the sound was a part of the atmosphere of their lives. Yet for all this…today, bizarrely, most Irish people have never heard their harp play a single note! The Trinity College Harp is a particular type of harp – a Gaelic harp. These types of harps died out in the 19th century. They were a central feature of Irish life for a very long time.

This book attempts to bring back to life – in all its technicolor brilliance – the world and the music (downloadable inside) of the Gaelic harps through the prism of the most famous one – which experts now agree was one of the most technologically advanced musical instruments of its time. This is a cultural story that every Irish person should know, and indeed anybody with an interest in the music history of the Western World.

Watch a video about the book here.