Emma Benson - The Irish Harpist

kate o beirne
Jul 16
3 min read

I have recently been sorting my online content and found a video of myself and John performing with this amazing harpist. It is uploaded on youtube this month as a throw back. It was a bit of an opportunity at the time. She is an All Ireland Feis Ceol winner! She is excellent!

So this month I've decided to do my blog on her, to help you guys understand how buzzing we were to play with her! I interviewed her and did some online research for this piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddYqFVlGjF8

Overview

Emma Benson, Harpist 23 years old, of Keadue, Roscommon. Emma Benson is a harpist I played with at a wedding some years ago. Not only a harpist, Emma is a qualified Primary School teacher. What an asset to a school!

She began learning the harp at the age of seven, under the guidance of Michael Rooney of Dríocht music school, and has won numerous All-Ireland medals on the harp. Turlough O’Carolan was buried up the road from her and there is a harp tradition in her home of Keadue. Her sister Ann Marie took it up when she was younger, but she is the one who has flown with it.

Influences:

She said in her interview that if something has influenced her, she has seen it live. Her main influence is her teacher, Michael Rooney. She was brought up on O Carolan’s music. Other than that, it was the live performances that she witnessed from a very young age, sessions, and the subsequent workshops that she took part in. These were given by the travelling harpists that came for the annual Harp festival in Keadue. The main ones that stuck out for her include Michelle Mulcahey, Grainne Hambly and Laoise Kelly. Here tunes are passed on and shared between the competent harpists. She describes having “Got the O’Carolan tune, Mable Kelly, from Laoise Kelly” on her interview on radio one. The other influence is the trad sessions the travels to attend to learn and share tunes.

Style:

Her style is lively, light and gently rhythmic. Plays a Larry Fisher 34-string harp. A feminine soothing sound. In her interview on Radio one, it was the soothing element of the harp that drew it to her in the first place. Despite this gentility, she has a rhythmic confidence on the hornpipes and reels. Emma likes to take the melodic line in group settings which she explained in interview that this is a modern approach, to play like a flute or fiddle. The older fashioned harpists she knows only take the melody in a solo performance and fill the sound with chords in groups. She said that it was Grainne Hambly and Laoise Kelly that brought her to this style and that she has developed this in traditional sessions around the country. Emma explained the line of influence too: Grainne and Laoise had been influenced by Janet Harbson.

Accolades:

She has won many prizes over the years at the prestigious O’Carolan Harp Festivals in Keadue and Nobber Harp Festival. She has received the Mícheál Ó hEidin medal in recognition of achieving distinction in her SCT Grade 8 exam, and she was the winner of the adult Fleadh Ceol competition in August 2022. Going forward: She currently plays regularly for weddings and tour groups. She finished her degree in Primary Teaching and Psychology in Mary Immaculate college in 2023, and did a travelling tour in Europe with her harp and concertina, visiting several musical outfits. She is flat out with weddings and gigs now and she aims to bring together her own band in the coming years.