Carolan the Harper
This is the only known contemporary portrait of Carolan. It was painted by Francis Bindon (c.1690-1765). He was a gentleman amateur painter, born in county Clare and best known for his portraits of Dean Swift, who was a friend of O'Carolan.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of IrelandCarolan the Harper
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland
Carolan the Harper
This is the only known contemporary portrait of Carolan. It was painted by Francis Bindon (c.1690-1765). He was a gentleman amateur painter, born in county Clare and best known for his portraits of Dean Swift, who was a friend of O'Carolan.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland
Turlough O'Carolan was one of the best music composers and harpists of Ireland. He is also remembered as the 'last of the Irish bards'. He spent most of his life as a travelling harpist. Only one of O'Carolan's songs is in English and all of his other songs are in Irish. However, he is most famous for his gift of composing harp music.
It is believed that O'Carolan composed over 200 Irish tunes that are still played today. Most of these were not written down during his lifetime. They were collected and published during the 18th and 19th century.
A lot of O'Carolan's music is still played by Irish musicians, such as Planxty, The Chieftains and The Dubliners. His famous piece 'O'Carolan's Concerto' has also been used by the British Army. In 2005, this music was played during the Trooping the Colour ceremony.