Why it is important that Irish harping is safeguarded as part of our living heritage in Northern Ireland.

My name is Janet Harbison, born in Dublin in 1955. My father came from Cookstown, Co.Tyrone, and growing up, I spent a great deal of my time among my Northern Ireland cousins, and most particularly my first cousins in Holywood, Co.Down. I started learning the harp at Secondary School in south Dublin and was trained as a singer to my own harp accompaniment (this was the prevalent style of harping at the time)- but all my friends were traditional musicians and having won all Irish national and a number of international harp competitions between 1979 and 1981, I performed extensively throughout America, the UK and Europe, and toured internationally with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (the traditional Irish music organisation).

The ‘Troubles’ raged in Northern Ireland through the 1970s and ‘80s and my family were affected like so many. Two of my cousins worked with the Peace People movement and for eighteen months from 1978, I worked with the Peace People in Hamburg, Germany where they had a support organisation. I helped to bring focus on the social impact of the ‘Troubles’ and in my concert performances, explained the history of Northern Ireland in its music.

After completing my Master’s Degree studies (on the subject of the music of the harpers from the Belfast Harpers’ Assembly of 1792), I moved to live in Belfast in 1984 and was awarded a (two year) Junior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Irish Studies (at Queen’s University). In 1986, I was appointed Curator of Music at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, a Department of Education facility housing the social history and cultural heritage of Northern Ireland, and the government policy for education at the time was ‘Education toward Mutual Understanding’. I was tasked with conceiving cultural heritage projects that would involve a cross-community collaboration and immediately I thought of developing a harp project.

The harp had an ambiguous cultural identity in Northern Ireland – as an emblem both of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and of political nationalism. At this time there were exceptionally few players in the province and those who did play were focused in the European (classical) or orchestral tradition. I started teaching traditional harp in a number of locations across Northern Ireland with the intention of establishing a cross-community concert troupe of young players that would perform music from their local cultural heritage.

A first concert took place in the bicentenary festivities of Belfast’s Linen Hall Library in the Ulster Hall in 1988 (the founders of which organised the 1792 Belfast Harpers Festival). It was a phenomenal success and, recorded by the BBC in two radio programmes that were frequently rebroadcast, a wave of interest was stimulated. In the 1992 bicentenary of the Belfast Harper’s Assembly itself, the government supported ‘The Year of the Harp’ celebrated in Belfast with the ‘World Harp Festival Belfast’, and the troupe of 22 harpers between the ages of 10 and 17 was formally launched as the ‘Belfast Harp Orchestra’. After a tour of Ireland, the BHO shared one

of the high profile concerts at the World Harp Festival with the Irish veteran group, ‘The Chieftains’, who were so enamoured with the Orchestra that they took them to perform with them in Dublin’s National Concert Hall and in London’s Barbican Centre in the weeks following the Belfast concert. Recordings were made at the Dublin and London venues and five collaborative tracks were included on the Chieftains ‘Celtic Harp’ CD – which in March 1993 won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Music Album in the USA. The concerts with the Chieftains jettisoned the Belfast Harp Orchestra into world focus and both with the Chieftains and in their own right, the Belfast Harp Orchestra brought the music song and dance of Northern Ireland to a world audience. 1993 Concert venues included New York’s Carnegie Hall and Washington’s Kennedy Centre and the Belfast Harp Orchestra itself toured widely throughout the UK, Europe and Middle East.

After peace was declared in 1985, a euphoric three years following with performing, recording, TV features and films (including a PBS special), and the orchestra was celebrated for its dynamic success in forging a new image for Belfast. But, with the collapse of the peace process with the renewal of the Troubles in 1997, concerts were cancelled, our merchandise was returned from our UK distributers, and there was great disappointment, awkwardness and shunning. In 1999, the orchestra management (based in Munich, Germany) required a name-change to ‘The Irish Harp Orchestra’ and in 2002, the orchestra moved its base south to Co.Limerick.

But, it left behind a vibrant community of harp players throughout the province – over a hundred players who progressed to becoming professional players – as stage performers, corporate entertainers, palliative harp therapists and teachers. Many more players played for leisure enhancing the cultural life of their communities, and the tradition is now thriving with harp schools throughout the province. Many of these have performing ensembles and all are active in their local arts scenes as well as participating in national events with Harp Ireland.

The harp has given me an exceptional career and opened the world to me - and my wonderful students have given my life meaning and purpose. It was my privilege to work with so many exceptional people, musicians, harpers and their families, the government and their agencies – and audiences at home and abroad. Now that the tradition is vibrant again in Northern Ireland, I appeal to the UK Living Heritage Inventory to ensure that our harping tradition and very particular cultural history in Northern Ireland, is safeguarded as the jewel of our living heritage that it surely is.

Janet Harbison. 13.3.26