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A magical story: Priceless 200-year-old Irish harp found in garbage...

...and finds a home with one of the few people who would cherish it

By
MEGHAN SWEENEY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, August 3, 2009, 10:59 PM
Updated Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 10:29 AM

 

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The 200-year-old John Egan harp
The 200-year-old John Egan harp...

One person’s trash is another's treasure.

Quite the understatement for Julie Finch, who found a rare and priceless 200-year-old Irish harp a few weeks ago in a dumpster on W. 26 St. in New York City.

Finch saw the harp, which looked quite old and was painted with shamrocks, but at first passed it by. Then, thinking the instrument might be worth showing to Lorcan Otway, an Irish friend and musician, she took it from its perch atop the trash.

She called Otway and described the damaged but intact harp with the colorful shamrock design. Then she told her friend one other detail: A scrawl on the harp read "John Egan, inventor.”

"My God," was all that Otway could say.

When Finch brought the harp to him, Otway immediately recognized the harp's unique craftsmanship.

...signed by the master craftsman


“I gasped, because its teal blue color means it’s an original,” he said.  It was definitely "an Egan."

The average New Yorker may not know what "an Egan" is, but most know what a Stradivarius is. Otway's dusty Egan harp is almost as rare, and just as valauable for harp collectors as a Stradivarius is for violinists. It is thought to be one of the earliest known examples of the work of John Egan, the inventor of the modern Irish folk harp.

Egan, “the last of the great harpists in the O’Carolan tradition,” according to Otway, is credited with saving Irish harping and inventing the modern Irish folk harp.

In the 1800s, Irish harping was dying out, mainly because harpists were playing medieval instruments that were hundreds of years old.

Egan set out to revive the Irish harp tradition by inventing a modern, sleek, abbreviated form of the Irish harp. Working from 1792 to about 1830, he made over 2,000 harps, many of which were sent to schools for blind children in Belfast.

Egan even made harps for the likes of legendary Irish singer/songwriter Thomas Moore, author of “The Minstrel Boy” and “The Last Rose of Summer.”

“This harp maker not only made wonderful harps, but is in many ways is responsible for saving Irish harp music,” Otway says.

Of course, to the Irish, the harp is much more than a wonderful and ancestral musical instrument.

The harp has been used as a political symbol of Ireland for centuries. It dates back to the age of the legendary Brian Boru, a famous "high king" of the whole island of Ireland who played the harp. In Celtic society, every clan would have a resident harp player who would write songs in honor of the leader.

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