Turlough O'Carolan

Turlough O’Carolan (1670 - 1738)
(Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin)
Turlough O’Carolan, a blind, itinerant harper and, perhaps, Ireland's only true national composer, lived through a dismal period in Irish history. He was the most celebrated Irish harper and composer of his day, and, certainly by the early eighteenth century, one of the most famous men in Ireland.
Carolan was born at a place called Spiddal within half a mile of Nobber, County Meath in 1670. He was sent to school to Cruisetown, a village in his own neighbourhood. His father, John Carolan was a blacksmith later moved the family to Ballyfarnon on the Sligo/Rosscommon border where he was employed by the MacDermott Roe family who owned the ironworks there. Turlough was then about 14 years old.
When Carolan was eighteen years old he caught smallpox, and though he recovered from the disease, it left him completely blind. The matter of finding gainful occupation was then difficult, but he turned to music, and the harp. Mrs. McDermott Roe placed him under the apprenticeship of a local harper, and after three years, when he was deemed ready to begin his profession, she provided him with a harp, a horse and a helper to guide him.
The first house that Carolan visited on his travels was that of George Reynolds of Lough Sgur, in Co. Leitrim. Whatever he played cannot have been very good, for Reynolds advised him to try his skill at composing, saying that he ”might make a better hand of his tongue than his fingers”. Then, according to the story, Carolan composed his first song ”Sí Beag is Sí Mór”, based on a local legend about a war between two fairy armies. Squire Reynolds liked it very much and thus encouraged the young harper to turn his talents more in the direction of song writing. From this beginning Carolan continued to compose throughout his life.
Carolan spent most of his time travelling around Ireland, and this must have been a hard life. Imagine this blind musician, travelling on horseback, over the mud roads, accompanied by his helper, also on horsehack, to guide him and to carry his harp. Some of the better off players travelled in style, some had not even a companion. At the houses where he visited he was welcomed more as a friend than as an itinerant minstrel. He composed tunes for his friends and patrons, celebratory pieces for their weddings, and composed their elegies when they died. Over two hundred of these tunes have survived.
A Portrait of Turlough Carolan
by J.C. Trimball, 1844
Part of the Carolan legend is the story of when he met Francesco Geminiani: Geminiani, who was in residence in a fine house in Dublin, decided to put Carolan's reputation to the test. The musician played over on his violin the fifth concerto of Vivaldi. Carolan, immediately taking his harp, played over the whole piece after him, without missing a note, though he had never heard it before. The surprise of the company was increased when he composed a concerto in the same taste himself at the moment; and the more so, when he actually played that admirable piece known ever since as “Carolan’s Concerto”.
Carolan had friends in high places. Jonathan Swift, the Dean of St. Patrick's, held him in high esteem, and often had him to play at the Deanery. Swift was so taken with a lively song called ”O'Rourke's Feast” that with Carolan's help he translated it into English and it was often performed by Carolan during those evenings they spent together. Relations between the two men seem to have been on a fairly free and easy basis; we are told that once, when reproved by the Dean for being drunk on the road, Carolan replied in verse to the general effect that, 'whatever the clergy might say to others about drink, it was clear that they themselves never died of thirst.'
Taking everything into account, both his defects and his good qualities, we must admit that Carolan has acquired a big name in the history of Irish culture. As he himself jokingly describes:
"There is none like me in the race of Eve,
It is not because I say so myself;
By my oath I will tell no lie,
My compeer shall never be seen.
From me is each tale most melodious,
It is I have been honoured by women,
I am first in the power of the fingers,
None like me will ever be found."
("The ode to a storm", 1726)
In 1720 Carolan married Mary Maguire of Co. Fermanagh. They had six daughters and a son. They lived on a small farm near Mohill, Co. Leitrim. Mary Maguire died in 1733, and Carolan wrote a fine elegy lamenting her death, though there is no music for the poem. Most of his seven children are shadowy figures, though some facts regarding Carolan's life were ascertained from one of his granddaughters. His son, who was also a musician ended his days teaching the harp in London, where he fled, taking with him one of his father's harps and another man's wife. He also published a collection of his fathers music.
Carolan was at Maguire’s of Tempo when he felt that his end was approaching. He made his way back to Ballyfarnon, to his old friend Mrs. McDermott Roe. When she came to welcome him at the door of the house, he spoke to her, and said: “I came here after all I’ve gone through to die at home at last, in the place where I got my first teaching and my first horse.” After he had rested, recovered a little and had a drink of whiskey he called for his harp and played his "Farewell to Music", which was his last effort and which drew tears from the eyes of his auditory.
After coming back to Ballyfarnon Carolan was ill for about a week and was nursed devotedly by the members of MacDermott Roe family. A few hours before his death, while in the act of stretching forth his hand for the bottle of whiskey, ”to give his farewell kiss”, as he humorously said, he rolled out of his bed on the floor. The female attendant came to help him back to bed and Carolan said to her with a smile on his face: “I would not be surprised at a man falling when walking, but it is a great surprise for a man to fall when lying down”.
After his death, there was a great gathering of harpers and country people assembled at Ballyfarnon for a wake that lasted for four days. It was probably a fairly cheerful occasion, with many musicians and plenty of whiskey, reflecting Carolan’s character. On the fifth day after his death, Carolan's funeral took place, and he was buried in the MacDermott Roe family vault in Kilronan graveyard.
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The tunes on this page were arranged for synthetic instruments and performed by Jyrki Myllylä in 1996.

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