The July issue of Harp Perspectives is online now

Our July edition of Harp Perspectives featuring Seán Donnelly’s article – A GERMAN VISITOR, AN IRISH HARPER, AND A DUBLIN BOOT-MAKER: The Background to a Tale Told by Arthur O’Neill – is now online at https://www.harpireland.ie/resources-online-journal/

Seán Donnelly has written widely on the history of piping and harping in Ireland, and on the history of Irish music in general, including Irish dancing, subjects on which he has also lectured. Early connections between Irish and Scottish piping remain a particular interest, as does the history of the Irish harp in England and in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Having first learnt the Highland pipes, he later took up the uilleann pipes, joining Na Píobairí Uilleann, where his growing interest in research was encouraged by Breandán Breathnach, the founder and chairman, a major collector of Irish music and an outstanding authority on the subject. His interest in the history of harping developed from his research in general, and he is especially intrigued by the reaction of outsiders to the Irish harp in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As well as publications devoted to music, Seán’s articles have appeared in academic, local history, and military history journals, and occasionally online.