Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738) was a blind early
Irish harper, composer and singer whose great fame is
due to his gift for melodic composition. He was the
last great Irish harper-composer and is considered by
many to be Ireland's national composer. Harpers in the
old Irish tradition were still living as late as 1792,
as ten, including Arthur O'Neill, Patrick Quin and
Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh, showed up at the Belfast Harp
Festival, but there is no proof of any of these being
composers. Ó Hámsa...(+)
Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738) was a blind early
Irish harper, composer and singer whose great fame is
due to his gift for melodic composition. He was the
last great Irish harper-composer and is considered by
many to be Ireland's national composer. Harpers in the
old Irish tradition were still living as late as 1792,
as ten, including Arthur O'Neill, Patrick Quin and
Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh, showed up at the Belfast Harp
Festival, but there is no proof of any of these being
composers. Ó Hámsaigh did play some of Carolan's
music but disliked it for being too modern. Some of
O'Carolan's own compositions show influence from the
style of continental classical music, whereas others
such as Carolan's Farewell to Music reflect a much
older style of "Gaelic Harping".
Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill (1590–1649) was a
seventeenth-century soldier and one of the most famous
of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster in Ireland. On one
morning, the 15th June, 1646, "the whole army having
confessed, and the red-haired General, with the other
officers, having received the Holy Communion, made a
profession of faith, and the chaplain , after a brief
exhortation, gave them his blessing," And the great
General Owen Roe O'Neil then addressed his troops
before going to the battle of Benburb"
The Irishmen had the advantage of position, and won a
great victory. General Monroe fled without hat or cloak
leaving more than 3,000 of his men dead on the field,
and arms, stores, colours **, and provisions fell into
O'Neill's hands. No other Irish victory had ever
resulted in so complete an annihilation. The news of
the victory of Benburb caused great national rejoicing.
The Papal Nuncio, John Baptist Cardinal Rinuccini who
was then at Limerick, celebrated a solemn Te Deum in
Thanksgiving. Owen Roe O'Neill sent to Pope Innocent X
the banners captured at Benburb.
On the day of Owen Roe's death, Ireland lost the last
and the greatest of her warriors. He died in
Cloughoughter, in Cavan. Under cover of night he was
buried in the Franciscan Abbey in Cavan town.
Conspiracy theorists at the time said that he was
poisoned by a toxic substance put into his boots before
going to a ball.
The country was cast into deep mourning. Now that
Charles I of England was dead the threat of Cromwell
and his Roundheads hung over the country and Owen Roe
was their sole protector against him. As a poet
succinctly put it: "Like sheep without a shepherd -
When the snow falls from the sky - Why did you leave us
Owen - Why did you have to die?"
"At the critical moment when O'Neill's services would
have been invaluable against Cromwell he took suddenly
ill and fell dead. The story that he was poisoned may
be dismissed, for there is no evidence to sustain
it."
Although this work was originally written for Folk
Instruments, I created this arrangement for Concert
(Pedal) Harp.