Trinity College Harp

Overview

The Trinity College Harp — sometimes named Brian Boru’s Harp on the basis of a romantic 18th-century attribution that modern scholarship rejects — is a medieval wire-strung Irish cláirseach on permanent show in the Long Room of Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library. Structural analysis dates it to the 14th or 15th century. Together with the Queen Mary Harp and the Lamont Harp (both at the National Museum of Scotland), it is one of three surviving medieval Gaelic harps in the world, and the most prominently displayed.

The harp’s image is the model for the official coat of arms of Ireland, for the harp on every Irish euro coin’s obverse face, and — in mirror image, registered as a trademark in 1862 — for the famous Guinness logo.

Origin & History

The Trinity College Harp is dated on structural and decorative grounds to the 14th or 15th century. The exact maker is unknown; structural similarity to the Queen Mary Harp (Scotland) suggests it may have been made in Argyll in south-west Scotland and brought to Ireland, although direct Irish manufacture is also possible. The decorative carving is skilled and intricate — sufficient evidence that it was commissioned for an important household.

The traditional attribution to Brian Boru — the High King of Ireland, who died in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf, was first appeared in print through the antiquarian Charles Vallancey in 1786 and dismissed by the more rigorous George Petrie in 1840 as an unsupportable forgery. The instrument is several centuries too young to have any direct connection to Brian Boru, but the romantic attribution stuck and survives today as an alternative name.

The harp was acquired by Trinity College Dublin in the 18th century and has been a central exhibit of the Library since the 19th. Its public visibility — combined with the broader Gaelic cultural revival of the 19th century — made it the natural choice when the modern Irish state adopted the harp as its central national symbol after independence in 1922. The Guinness brewery had registered a left-facing version of the same harp as its trademark sixty years earlier, in 1862; to prevent conflict, the official Irish state coat of arms uses the harp facing right. The result is that the same physical instrument, viewed from different sides, anchors both Irish national identity and Guinness brand identity.

Construction & Materials

The Trinity College Harp is built from oak and willow with brass wire strings — the standard medieval Gaelic harp material specification. The soundbox is hollowed from a single block of wood, the construction technique that distinguishes Gaelic harps from their continental European gut-strung relatives. The instrument has approximately 30 strings; the surviving brass tuning pins are intact, providing direct evidence of the original tuning system.

The decorative carving on the forepillar and neck — characteristic of the Argyll-area workshops of the period — includes interlace work and stylised animal figures. Conservation work on the instrument has been documented by Trinity College and by the National Museum of Ireland; the harp is held in a controlled environment and the extant strings are not played.

How It’s Played

The medieval cláirseach is played seated, with the harp resting on the player’s left shoulder (the opposite of modern concert-harp practice, and probably reflecting the historical playing position of left-handed melody). The wire strings are plucked with the long fingernails of the right hand and damped with the fingertips of the left, producing the bell-like sustained tone characteristic of wire stringing. Damping technique is central: without continuous damping, the wire strings’ overtones accumulate into a confused texture.

The original Gaelic harp playing technique was largely lost when the tradition died out in Ireland in the early 19th century. The last documented Gaelic-tradition harper was Denis Hempson of Magilligan (1695–1807), whose playing was transcribed by Edward Bunting at the Belfast Harp Festival of 1792. The modern revival, beginning in the late 19th century, has reconstructed the technique from these surviving sources, the medieval instruments themselves, and comparison with related living traditions.

Cultural Significance

The Trinity College Harp’s significance is double. As an instrument it is direct material evidence of the Gaelic harp tradition that was the principal court music of medieval Ireland and of Scotland for at least four centuries. As a symbol it has become inseparable from modern Irish identity: the harp on the presidential standard of Ireland, on every Irish euro coin, on the Irish passport, on every Irish government building, and on the Irish Defence Forces harp emblems is the same physical object visible behind glass in the Long Room.

The Guinness trademark, registered in 1862 with the harp facing left, predates the official adoption of the harp as the Irish state symbol after independence in 1922. The Irish state therefore had to register its arms with the harp facing right, leaving Guinness with the original left-facing version. The arrangement remains in force today.

Notable Examples & Recordings

• The instrument itself is on permanent display in the Long Room at Trinity College Dublin.
• Recording landmarks for the broader wire-strung Gaelic harp tradition: Ann Heymann (US-based scholar-performer), Siobhán Armstrong (Irish historical-harp specialist), Andrew Lawrence-King (English revivalist), Bill Taylor (Scottish revivalist).
• Edward Bunting’s General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland (1796, 1809, 1840) — the central documentary source for the surviving Irish harp repertoire transcribed from the last tradition-bearer harpers.

Related Instruments

• Queen Mary Harp — the Scottish wire-strung counterpart at the National Museum of Scotland.
• Lamont Harp — the third surviving medieval Gaelic harp.
• Celtic harp — the modern revival instrument.
• Pedal harp — the modern orchestral harp from a separate continental tradition.
• Welsh triple harp — the related Welsh harp tradition.
• Bull-headed lyre of Ur — a comparably significant museum-grade ancient string instrument.
• Cláirseach — the broader category of historical Gaelic harps.

Where to Hear It

The harp is on permanent show in the Long Room of Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library (combined ticket with the Book of Kells exhibit). Recordings of the wire-strung Gaelic harp by Ann Heymann, Siobhán Armstrong, and others are available; the Historical Harp Society of Ireland and the Scoil na gCláirseach summer school in Kilkenny are the central modern revival institutions.

• Wikipedia: Trinity College Harp
• Wikidata: Trinity College Harp (Q3127686)
• DBpedia: Trinity College Harp
• Trinity College Dublin Old Library

Learning Resources

Modern reconstructions of the Trinity College pattern are built by Ardival Harps (Scotland), David Kortier (US), and Pedro Ferreira (Portugal), among others; instruments cost from approximately 3,000 to 8,000 USD. Ann Heymann’s Secrets of the Gaelic Harp (1988) is the central modern method; the published Bunting collections (1796 / 1809 / 1840) are the central primary repertoire. The Historical Harp Society of Ireland publishes scholarly editions and pedagogical material.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was it really Brian Boru’s harp?
No. The instrument dates from the 14th or 15th century — at least 300 years after Brian Boru’s death in 1014. The attribution was first published in 1786 and dismissed by serious scholarship by 1840.

Why are there two versions of the Irish harp symbol?
The Guinness brewery registered a left-facing version of the harp as its trademark in 1862. When the Irish state adopted the harp as its official symbol after independence in 1922, it used the right-facing version to avoid conflict with the existing Guinness trademark.

Where can I see it?
In the Long Room of Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library, on permanent display, accessible with the standard Book of Kells / Old Library ticket.

How is it different from the modern concert harp?
It is much smaller, has wire strings rather than gut and nylon, has no pedals, and is played with the fingernails rather than the fingertips. The two instruments belong to essentially separate harp traditions that converged only in the 19th-century revival.

What were the strings made of?
Brass wire — the standard material for the medieval Gaelic harp tradition, in contrast with the gut-strung continental European harps. Some surviving evidence suggests gold or silver strings were used on particularly valuable instruments, but brass was the standard.