Show a 9 HAUP HARP ALWAYS THE I 1 OF THE EMERALD ISLE f long before history had trodden a pathway across the insecure ground of legend and tradition the irish harp was alike the reflex and interpreter of popular feeling perhaps it may be said to have come popularly into the general view when james I 1 placed it in tha third quarter of the royal arms of great britain but a century before th s hemy VIII vill had impressed a harp on the irish coin age a seemingly prosaic tact fact which yet cannot be divorced from the strong element of romance which per every phase of the subject for it seems that a son of king brian boru presented his fathers harp to pope john in 1003 and that it was treas ired in rome until leo X sert it to henry VIII years after ward he in turn gave it to the first earl of Clan clanricarde Clann carde ricarde and after pass ing into the possess on of several irish families brian a stoned storied harp eventually to ind a home in the col lege museum in dublin but ns ng this venerable ver erable instrument to be at I 1 ast 1 1000 years old that is a mere of oe le in the history of the harp and especial lj of the irish harp we may accept the harp as a pretty ancient representative of its great family but hen the older irish historians go b X to the deluge and it is only in the very mist land of antiquity that we lose touch with their national symbol and even there we seem to catch the echo of its strains but though boasting of su such ch a remote past the irish harp Is simply an adaptation of an instrument corn com mon to central and northern europe we find it in the hands of the khe ger man and celtic bards and of the scandinavian skalds and every race has been able to impress upon it something of its own pe ullar uliar genius the violin is italian in its birth and it is said to be anima ed by an italian soul and in like macnei such buch of the old irish music as has come down to us essentially consists of strains of the harp this however is not surprising for ae are told tha long before the lyre was known in or gree e the gae of f ireland had attained a high degree of perfect tion in the form and management of the harp not to be capable of sweep ing it in a mas erly manner m was as deemed a d bgrace even to royalty I 1 chis his however was not sol sul my an irish reeling leeling bit that of almost very peo pie among whom th harp nourished flourished in medi medieval eNal times it was regarded aa the I 1 ing of musical l ii efly because no other provide such an effect effective lie accompaniment for the voice the national feeling arous ed by it was nowhere expressed more strongly stion gly than in ireland and the cloud of legends traditions and abd an dent superstitions which in lh that country seem essentially to cling to it are its pe uliar but very natural heritage the harp is the esl es lecial ecial pride of the green isle |