Renowned Harper for The Forge at Gort

national | arts and media | event notice Friday February 05, 2010 15:02 by Fred Johnston - The Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scribhneoirí Chaitlin Maude westernwriters at eircom dot net Canavan House, Nuns Island, Galway 087.2178138

Festival continues its music-and-poetry policy

Renowned Irish-harper PAUL DOOLEY will perform at the Pádraig Ó Moráin reading, Saturday, March 27th, at Gort Public Library

Paul Dooley - maestro of the wire-strung harp

Paul Dooley is one of the very few Irish people who play the Irish harp in its historical form and style - using a metal-strung harp, playing with the fingernails and damping unwanted string resonance with the fingertips.

Paul studied the construction of medieval Irish harps in Dublin during the early 1980s and has built several harps. He started his performing career on the metal-strung harp in 1986 and has appeared on numerous CD recordings and television soundtracks.

His repertoire consists mostly of traditional Irish dance music, including jigs and reels, some of which he has learned from recordings and printed music but mostly learned from other musicians: pipers, flute players and fiddlers.

Paul has spent the past ten years working on the Robert ap Huw manuscript, the oldest collection of harp music in existence.

We acknowledge assistance from The Arts Council, Knute Skinner and Pat O'Callaghan