Original Oil Painting on 3ft x 4ft boxed canvas

“The Bann Harp”.

Inspired by my daughters harp and our view over the River Bann.

“The Bann Harp”, according to local folklore, was the first harp to have been created in Ireland. Some of the first settlers in Ireland settled near the Bann Estuary.

The story of “The Bann Harp”:

One of the first Irish settlers and his wife resided close to the region. The man’s wife became distressed and wanted to run away.

She tried to leave via the Bann.

The husband was desperate to find her.

He eventually discovered his wife at one of the beaches at the Bann estuary laying in the sand beside a washed up carcass of a whale. The whale carcass had exposed ribs to the wind which created beautiful music and soothed his wife’s soul to a contented slumber. The man ran to get rushes to resemble the shape of the whale ribs into what became known as the harp so that he could play the soothing sound to his wife. “The Bann Harp” apparently was the first Celtic harp as we know it today.

Irish folklore retold from memory