In celebration of Lá na Cruite|Harp Day 2026, this illustrated talk in King House, Boyle on Saturday October 17th will address how harper and poet Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738) became an Irish cultural icon, the first figure from Gaelic Ireland to establish a presence on the national and International stage.
The reasons for this have to do with European influences on O’Carolan, in the form of Italian Baroque music, as well as his influence, in turn, on the rise of Irish cultural nationalism, and its appeal to European Romanticism. Central also to O’Carolan’s international reputation was his contribution to Irish diasporic culture in the United States and Canada, and his later formative role in the Irish Cultural Revival at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Luke Gibbons, from Keadue, County Roscommon, has taught as Professor of Irish Studies at Maynooth University, Ireland, and at the University of Notre Dame, U.S.A. His recent publications include James Joyce and the Irish Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2023), Joyce’s Ghosts: Ireland, Modernism and Memory (University of Chicago Press, 2015); and Charles O’Conor: His Life and Works, co-edited with Kieran O’Conor (Four Courts Press, 2015). He contributed the chapter ‘Roscommon in Literature: 1600 -2000,’ to Roscommon: History and Society, ed. Richie Farrell, Kieran O’Conor, et al (Geography Publications, 2019).
O’Carolan as Cultural Icon: The Making of a Reputation will be held in King House on Saturday October 17th commencing at 2pm. This is a free event.
