‘The Wild Irish Girl and Her Harp’ documentary on RTE Lyric fm

‘The Wild Irish Girl and her Harp‘ is a documentary will be featured on RTE Lyric fm this Sunday, 15th November, 6-7pm on RTE Culture. This portrait, presented and produced by academic, and pianist, Dr. Una Hunt, celebrates the extraordinary Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan, the nineteenth-century celebrity cult figure who penned the influential novel – The Wild Irish Girl, which included a description of the early Irish harper, Dennis O’Hampsay.
Owenson styled herself on Glorvina, the heroine of her book: a harp-playing Gaelic princess, and initiated a fashion for her own brand of pseudo-Irish dress. Her use of Egan Royal Portable harps in the drawing room generated keen awareness in other novels of the period and helped shape the modern Irish harp.
Music includes specially recorded world-premiere recordings of Owenson’s songs, the Hibernian Melodies, which exerted a largely unacknowledged influence on Thomas Moore. Contributors: Owenson scholars, Claire Connolly and Julie Donovan; mezzo-soprano Laura Murphy, and harpist Nancy Hurrell. This programme will be available to listen to after broadcast on the Lyric Feature Archive.