We are delighted to announce that our 2019 Arts-Council-funded project to catalogue the printed materials, sound recordings and ephemera in the HHSI Members’ Library is now complete. Our catalogue is now visible and searchable in an online library management system, integrated into our website. The system we chose for our Library is LibLime Koha, which is the most advanced open-source Integrated Library System in use today by hundreds of libraries worldwide.
Browse our library collection.
Our congratulations and thanks to Dr Lynnsey Weissenberger, who directed – and executed – this project so excellently for us.
The Arts Council’s ‘Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland’ 2014, recommended that “[t]he Arts Council should seek to support research and publication on the subject of the early Irish harpers, the early harping tradition, and the harp in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth century.”
Since 2003, the HHSI has been assembling the first ever library collection dedicated to historical Irish – and to a lesser extent, European – harps and related subjects e.g. early Irish vocal music and poetry, with works relating also to relevant Irish and related European history, culture, society and historical music-making.
This unique collection now consists of 500+ catalogued items: books and music-source material (19th- to 21st century), periodicals, theses, sheet music, sound recordings, harp-building plans, and ephemera. Dr Weissenberger points out that “…[in] this valuable resource[, it’s] worth noting that I found quite a few items in this collection that only one to two other libraries in the world also own.”
The formation of this unique collection – and its continued expansion – is an indispensable step towards building a vital resource that can support early and modern harpists, harp builders, singers and other Irish – and historical – music practitioners and researchers in Ireland.
We are very grateful for The Arts Council’s 2019 Arts Grant funding, which has enabled us to present our collection to a world-wide audience for the first time.
Thanks are also due to Simon Chadwick, who first produced – and was long responsible for updating – the partial library catalogue page on our website over the fifteen years that preceded our new Integrated Library Management system.
Until the HHSI has a premises, the HHSI Library Collection is accessible to HHSI Members in Kilkenny, Dublin and Galway on request. Local, national & international artists have access to the collection at the annual HHSI summer festival in Kilkenny.
Photos: Siobhán Armstrong
James mcfall was my great grandfather and his grandson(my dad) used to help make the harps with his grandfather. His granson is still alive at the ripe age of 91 and lives with me in canada. The last harp he made with his grandfather, he sold to come to canada in the 1950’s the plans for the mcfall harp were left to my dad but they were on wooden plaques and too heavy to bring with him to canada. My mom and i went over in 1967 and my mom wanted to surprise my dad by bringing home the plans but my grandmother decided they were dust collectors and gave them to a priest from australia if you have ever recovered them i would love a picture so i can show them to my dad as they did belong to him. The only one i ever saw was in the belfast museum in 1967. I just thought you might like this bit of knowledge from a true McFall.
Dear Kim,
Wow! Thank you for taking the time to share this information with us. It would be great to know more. Perhaps you could visit us for our summer festival some year?
Many thanks for getting in touch.
Siobhán Armstrong