Josephine Patricia Smith: Returning to the Irish Harp

Editor's Note: The following piece has been shared with IrishCentral from the American Irish Historical Society's (AIHS) Treasures of Time, stories from the collections and archives of the American Irish Historical Society in New York City.

This article is accompanied by a catalog created for our journal of undergraduate research, An Cartlann Gael-Mheiriceánach. To see the referenced collection in full, please view the catalog here.

Previously, we have spoken about the works of Irish-American musician Josephine Patricia Smith. Known primarily for her composition, the American Irish Historical Society retains her works in our extensive Irish sheet music collection. In our article last November, we looked at her song “The Fairy Tree” and its careful mixture of Irish folklore and religious undertones.

However, today we explore the history of the instruments that have created this music and built Smith’s own repertoire.

Photograph of a portrait of Josephine Patricia Smith painted in 1927 by Michael M. Loughlin. Loughlin was a painter who also worked in stained-glass, designing the windows of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills. In this portrait, Smith is wearing 17th-century dancing attire, which she copied from a history book, as well as a Tara broach and a claddagh bracelet. The influence of the “flapper era” in which the portrait was painted is evident in Smith's hairstyle.

Naturally, as a writer of music, Smith was a musician herself. Though many of her compositions focus on the piano, she worked primarily as a harpist.

Smith was born in Manchester, England, on March 3, 1902 of Irish parents who had emigrated from County Mayo. She was one of 14 children. Her mother was Annie O’Rourke Smith and her father was John Smith. The family surname had originally been McGowan, but her father began using the English translation “Smith” when he came to England.

Josephine received instruction on the piano as a child in Manchester. Her father and sister Anna Winifred were also musical. For more than thirty years prior to her death on June 22, 1979, articles Smith wrote about the origin and conveyance of traditional Irish folk songs and dance music were published intermittently in the Irish Echo and the Irish World and Gaelic American.

As a musicologist, Smith researched the works of Bunting, Petrie, Thomas Moore, Captain Francis O’Neill, and Charlotte Milligan Fox. Additionally, Smith researched and wrote about more than fifty Irish folk songs, including “Londonderry Air” sometimes referred to as “Danny Boy,” “The Foggy Dew” of which there are several versions, and the “Bard of Armagh.” Her writings include references to the last Harp Festival held in Belfast in 1792, the blind harper Turlough O’Carolan, other Celtic populations, and the influence on American music of Irish music brought by early settlers.

Smith performed with and taught the traditional Irish folk harp and the larger concert pedal harp. For years she adjudicated the harp competition at the United Irish Counties Feis in New York City. Smith’s most well-known harp student is likely Deidre Danaher. Additionally, Smith was a piano accompanist and coach for opera students and Metropolitan Opera involvees. As a pianist, Smith was was classically educated under famed Austrian pianist Sister Emmanuel. She studied at Notre Dame college in Manchester, England, before coming to America to pursue music.

Smith also arranged music for the harp. Unfortunately, the Josephine Patricia Smith Collection of Traditional Irish Music for the Harp, published in 1973, which was intended to be the first of a series, was the only volume of her musical arrangements to be published.

Smith was married to tenor Seamus O’Doherty, also known as James J. O’Doherty. He was born on December 7, 1902, in County Donegal, Ireland, to Susan Donelly Doherty and James Doherty. Neither made a living from their musical endeavors. Smith died on June 22, 1979, at the age of 77. O’Doherty died on August 25, 1980. Both are buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Queens.

Smith and O’Doherty were personal friends of the Pearse family, including Padraic Pearse, schoolteacher and patriot executed in 1916, his sister Bridget from whom Smith took harp lessons, and their mother Margaret Pearse who had introduced the couple.

The Josephine Patricia Smith Collection was donated in 2000 by C. Patricia Sullivan, AIHS volunteer and harp student of Josephine Patricia Smith. The collection was processed and our catalogued finding aid was created in 2026 by Melanie Zhang, AIHS intern and senior at New York University studying History.

Two of Josephine Patricia Smith’s harp tuning keys, from AIHS collection.

Smith’s skill as a harpist comes from a long tradition of Irish music. Though we typically see Irish music through the hand-held instruments found in Irish Trad (fiddles, Uilleann pipes, accordions, and Bodhrán, for example), the use of the harp comes as no surprise to fans of the tradition.

20th ct. Postcard of Trinity College Dublin’s famed Irish harp, via Simon Chadwick

The above postcard illustrates a harp that many who have visited our collections would be closely familiar with. TCD’s harp was reconstructed in 1939 by the Guinness Corp. for the New York world’s fair, and donated to our collections shortly after.

The Irish harp is a well-known symbol, found in flags, currency, and even some notable beverages. But its musical tradition is lost without the performance and composition engaged with by those like Smith. Seeing these ancient roots and working to preserve them in the modern day allows for a clear connection through the ages.

To see more information on Smith’s collection or to arrange a visit to see her materials in person, view the attached finding aid. And if you’re ever looking for some harp music, don’t forget to take a look around New York’s thriving Irish music scene and you’ll be easily able to find a way to hear the harp in person!

This column is adapted from the blog of the American Irish Historical Society (AIHS). Read the full stories at AIHSNY.org/blog.

Founded in 1897 and located on Museum Mile in New York City, the American Irish Historical Society (AIHS) preserves and promotes the history and cultural legacy of the Irish in America through its archives, art collections, and public programs. Learn more at AIHSNY.org.