O'Carolan's Harp

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West)

O'Carolan was one of the greatest bards in Celtic history, and his songs live on in the hearts of the Irish people. But his music living on is not what I have to tell you, the tale I have to tell is about his harp. 

When I was a child, returning to Ireland with my family from America, I wandered aimlessly through the hills and forests surrounding our family's land, where my ancestors and relatives had lived for so many years. 

On one of these occassions, I came across a huge willow tree, which had large branches that seemed to hold up the sky and swept over the river that ran beside it. 

Strangely enough, I thought that I heard harp music ringing in the branches of this old tree as I played upon it, of an ancient, harmonious kind. After many days of playing on this tree, I felt that I had made a friend, and I felt a sense of trust between us. I poured out my heart to the tree, as I wasn't as shocked as many would be when the tree spoke back to me. 

The story it told was a beautiful one, and I listened like a child on her grandmother's knee. 

She said that she was the harp of Turlough O'Carolan, and that before that, she had been a willow branch, bent and carved, and hollowed out by a master harp builder. No one would buy her, though, because her wood was stained green with her spring sap, that was until the blind harper came, who couldn't see her color and fell in love with her voice. 

Everyone knows that green willow wood is alive, even if it has been separated from the tree for a long time. All you need to do is put it in water, and roots will spread and branches grow out of a log long thought dead. This is natural, but there are other reasons why Carolan's harp turned alive, and they are more supernatural. 

Carolan, as a blind man, could hear things that others could not hear. Some of the things he heard were not meant to be heard by mortal men, but were slip of the lips by fairies who thought they were alone, had too much to drink, or when they were singing to themselves plowing fairy circles in the forest. These melodies were little snippets of the Ceol Mor, which even fairies can only sing small parts of (because its as long as the universe), the song that God sung to animate the world. Carolan still couldn't get the notes quite right, and his versions are full of errors, but what he did play right did something amazing to his harp: it was brought to life and it became a portal between the spirit world and the world of men. 

When Carolan died, his harp continued to play the old tunes, and the people of the village thought it to be haunted and cursed. So, they took it out and threw it in the river. It floated down into a bog, and there took root and grew into a tree, a five hundred year old tree. And unlike any other tree, Carolan's harp can sing and play, tell stories, and bridge between the worlds. 

The harp can speak of the tragedies and beauties of Ireland, and she sings songs about them, as only a bard can do. She is the last of the ancient order of Irish bards, but will teach any who will listen. She is a kingdom as well, where sprites and fairies live in a willow-wood city, surrounding the tarnished, green strings of the original harp. 

This all a big willow tree on the banks of the river Boyne. My amazement was the greatest when, as a child, the tree opened up to me and I began my adventures.

An Ancient Irish Harp