news – Page 9 – Simon Chadwick

James O’Neil

James O’Neil was a traditional Irish harper in the early 19th century. We have only two sources which mention him. But we can join these two and try to find the context for them, to start to tell his story.

Samuel Patrick

Samuel Patrick was said to be a “bad harper” and arsonist. He had a long career working as a traditional Irish harper in Belfast and Dublin, including performing for Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Arthur. This post draws together what I know about him so far.

Martin Craney

Martin Craney (or Crenny) was a traditional Irish harper in the early 19th century. He toured in England and the Isle of Man; he went into Connacht trying to follow in the footsteps of Carolan; and he played concerts in the south-west. This post gathers information about him.

William Carr

William Carr was a traditional Irish harper at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. This post is to gather everything I can find out about him.

Edward McBride

Edward McBride was a traditional Irish harper in the early 19th century. He played for the King in Dublin, and he taught the harp in Belfast. This post gathers information about him.

Patrick Murney

Patrick Murney was a blind traditional Irish harper living in Belfast in the 19th century. We have portraits of him and we have traditionary information from him. This post gathers together what I have found so far about him.

(Header image courtesy of National Museums NI)

Roger Begley

Roger Begley was a blind traditional Irish harper from Belfast. He married a Dublin girl and they went to live in England.

I had not heard of Roger Begley until a few years ago. His name doesn’t appear in any of the books or articles about the Irish harp tradition. This post summarises what I have found from digging in the archives, to try and give us a picture of his life.

Patrick McCloskey

Patrick McCloskey (or McClusky) was a blind Irish harper who died very young.

Hugh Frazer

Hugh Fraser (or Frazer) is an Irish harper whose name appears quite often, because he taught the harp in Drogheda in the 1840s. This post is to draw together other references to him, to try and build more of a picture of him and his life.

Bridget O’Reilly

I don’t know very much about Bridget O’Reilly, but I thought it might be useful to start gathering references to her. There are also a few references to un-named female harpers which might possibly be her. Hopefully in time we will find more detailed references which will allow us to tell more of her story.