How did the harp get to be so important in Irish culture?
Habinski: The bardic class was critical to the survival of the Irish way of life. It was by and large an oral culture with a minimal system of written language. Oral history and the telling of stories was vitally important to the community. Bards held a much higher social status in Celtic communities than musicians or storytellers in other societies. The harp was the bardic instrument. It was used for pure music too, but it became important because it was used to accompany the recitation or the singing of stories and thus to preserve the oral history. AIM: Then we get down to the harp festival in Belfast in 1792 where all of eight or nine people showed up. From primacy to disuse – what happened? Habinski: A lot of things changed drastically in Ireland during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth in Britain. In the early portion of her reign, Ireland was a reasonably strong nation in its own right. Irish music was very popular throughout the British Isles. In fact, Elizabeth had a cour
