Belfast Harp Festival

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The Belfast Harp Festival in 1792 was a three day event organised by Edward Bunting, age 19, at the request of James McDonnell and his committee, called the Belfast Harpers Society, whose special interest was the preservation of Irish harp music. The venue of the contest is now unoccupied but was, until recently, the Northern Bank building on Waring Street in Belfast (which was opened as a market house in 1769).

The objective of the festival was to assemble the remaining traditional harp players to compete for prizes. It was attended by ten Irish harpers:

Denis Hempson, blind (Derry), who was 94 and played with long, crooked fingernails
Arthur O'Neill, blind (Tyrone)
Charles Fanning (Cavan)
Dan Black, blind (Derry)
Charles Byrne (Leitrim)
Hugh Higgins, blind (Mayo)
Patrick Quinn, blind (Armagh)
William Caer (Armagh)
James Duncan (Down)
Rose Mooney, blind (Meath)

William Caer was 15 years of age while all the other were over 45 years. There were three winners selected, and each was awarded a yearly stipend of ten pounds (Fanning took first place). Edward Bunting subsequently visited each winner, one after the other, to collate all of the available contemporary harp music. He didn't publish this material until well after 1800 (1796, 1809, 1840). Songs saved through this effort include: Feaghan Gealeash, Deirdre's Lament for the Sons of Usneach (thought to be the oldest extant piece of Irish music), Scott's Lamentation, The Battle of Argan More, Ossianic Air, Blackheaded Deary, Open the Door Softly (played by Arthur O'Neill), The Lament for Limerick, and Chorus Jig (a jig in name only).