Festival celebrates legendary harpist as superstar

Turlough O'Carolan was an international superstar hundreds of years before U2 and Riverdance, Fianna Fáil MEP Sean O'Neachtain said yesterday.

He was speaking at the opening of the 29th International O'Carolan International Harp Festival in Keadue, Co Roscommon, which commemorates the so-called "last of the Irish bards" .

"O'Carolan gained an international reputation early in his career. Indeed his music inspired the American anthem, the Star Spangled Banner," explained the MEP.

Almost 270 years after O'Carolan's death, harpists and traditional music-lovers from around the world have been pouring into Keadue to celebrate his music. Throughout last week, students from Korea, Japan, the United States, Germany, Belarus and Britain have been attending O'Carolan summer school workshops in harp, flute, tin whistle, fiddle, banjo, uilleann pipes, concertina, sean nós singing and set dancing.

"When we started in 1978, we had one harpist but now they come from Russia, America and Europe as well as all over Ireland," said Paraic Noone, secretary of the organising committee.

O'Carolan, who was blinded by smallpox as a teenager, spent almost 50 years travelling on horseback to big houses throughout Ireland to perform and compose tunes for his benefactors. His first patron was Mary McDermott Roe from Alderford House near Keadue.

A wreath-laying ceremony will take place at O'Carolan's grave in Kilronan cemetery outside the village today.

Yesterday's programme began with a Mass in Keadue church where Cardinal Cahal Daly, a frequent visitor to the festival, criticised the media's preoccupation with "the good life" and its portrayal of religion as "old fashioned, out of date".

The cardinal, whose father was a native of Keadue, said today's newspapers celebrated a lifestyle of "exotic holidays, sun-drenched beaches, abundant food and fine wines". He said that anything connected with religion, especially the Catholic faith, was portrayed as "belonging to a bygone age, conflicting with science, and progress".

One of the festival highlights, the annual door dancing competition, will take place on the village street today, but the main event will be the international harp competition which has attracted harpers from around the globe.

Yesterday's official opening ceremony was preceded by a parade traditionally led by "the bard". This year, O'Carolan was represented by a German woman, Christina Becker from near Dusseldorf, who led the marching bands and floats through the village.

O'Carolan would have approved of the festive atmosphere. Famous for his love of Irish whiskey, he wrote a tune in honour of his favourite tipple.

Legend has it that, as he was dying, he called for one last drop remarking, "the drink and I have been friends for so long, it would be a pity for me to leave without one last kiss".