news - Simon Chadwick

Edward O’Neil

Edward O’Neil was learning to play the traditional wire-strung Irish harp in Belfast in 1810. This post is to try and say something useful about him.

We have one single description of Hennesy, a traditional harper in Dundalk, which was printed and reprinted in many English newspapers in 1804. This post is to discuss this report and try to say something useful about Hennesy.

Dennis Hampson

Dennis Hampson (also known as Denis, Hempson, O’Hampsey, and other variants) was a traditional Irish harper in the 18th century. He lived through into the early 19th century and so he has a place in my “Long 19th Century” project.

Thomas Shea

Thomas Shea was a traditional Irish harper in County Kerry in the 18th century. He was still alive (though very old) in 1792 and so he gets a place in my Long 19th Century project, about harpers who were active between 1792 and 1909.

Header image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

Patrick Byrne part 2: 1822-1837

In Part 1, I wrote about Patrick Byrne’s early years and education. This post is to gather references to the first part of his professional career.

Thomas Brown

Thomas Brown was a traditional Irish harper in the mid 19th century. This post is to collate the couple of references we have to him, to try and tell a bit of his life story.

Thomas Williamson

Thomas Williamson was learning to play the traditional wire-strung Irish harp in 1826. This post is to try and say something about him.

Murphy

We have a couple of different references to a harper named Murphy. The first reference is to a pupil at the Belfast harp school, and the second is from a Repeal parade in Cork city six years later. I don’t know if they are the same person or not. This post is to line up the information we have so that we can consider the possibilities.

Patrick McGrath

Patrick McGrath learned to play the traditional wire-strung Irish harp in the early 19th century. This post is to gather what scanty information we have about him. Perhaps in future more references will turn up and we can add them to the bottom of this post.

Patrick Byrne’s farm at Beagh

Because we have so many documents relating to the traditional Irish harper Patrick Byrne, there are some interesting side-lines that can be followed up, which are not strictly part of his life. The story of the farm at Beagh is one of these stories.