It was raining the night the harper came to our halls in Ballyfarnon.2 His garments were soaked and his young guide went straight to Lady O'Rourke requesting the most comfortable room in the hall as well as the blessing of a warm fire. While searching for my mistress, the boy left his charge waiting alone in the entranceway of the manor.
Away from his keeper, the old man removed a beautiful wooden harp from a leather case that was carefully set apart from the disarrayed bags upon the floor. From my corner down the hall I could spy that the old gentleman was at least five and sixty with a long grey beard to match his shoulder-length salt and pepper hair. The harp was a Clairseach and it stretched from his waist to his chin, accommodating many strings of different lengths along its outer rim.3
Without asking for approval or permission he began to play a tune that I recognized as familiar to our household. Written and named for Lady MacDermott Roe, it was often played by our own musicians.4 Mrs. O'Rourke enjoyed recalling the memories it evoked of her late mother and requested it often at dinners and gatherings.
Soon after the melody began to fill the chamber with its peaceful resonance, fast paced clicks were heard echoing down the hallway. It was as if the music and its bell-like quality had summoned the lady and not the guide.
"Turlough?... Turlough Carolan, is that you?"
I saw the musician look up and smile mischievously.5 He quickly picked up his tempo and began a jig to which he added his distinct Irish voice. Unfortunately, the melody was somewhat lost to theatrics as he began to sway back and forth. I had to giggle from my perch for he was obviously deep in his cups.
"Why, liquor of life! do I love you so,
When in all our encounters you lay me low?
More stupid and senseless I everyday grow,
What a hint - if I'd mend by the warning
Tattered and torn you've left my coat,
I've not a cravat - to save my throat,
Yet I pardon you all, my sparkling doat,
If you'll cheer me again in the morning."6
The rough throaty voice possessed no clear tenor-like quality. His words came out with sporadic meter and grated heavily upon my ears.
By the time his song had ended, Lady O'Rourke, who stood a full head taller than the hunched and intoxicated old frame, looked down upon the harper with what might have been considered consternation to those far away. From my vantage point though, I could see her sparkling and good tempered eyes give away her true emotion.
"Welcome back sir," she said while offering him an arm. As he took her hand, Carolan looked up and said, "I have come here after all I have gone through, to die at home at last, where I got my first schooling and my first horse."7
The lady dropped her hand and her head while taking a step back. "I see your meaning old friend, though I hope your vision is wrong." Immediately she turned and called to me. "Judith? Judith, where are ya lass?"
I stepped out of the shadows and cried, "Right here ma'am."
"I knew you'd be spying about somewhere close by. Go prepare the guests' quarters for Master Carolan. I'll have Sarah send a warm meal up to the room soon."
"Yes ma'am," I said and turned to complete my assigned task. As I was leaving I heard the lady giving one last direction to the harper himself. "In the meantime, I will expect you to take a nice hot bath and warm your bones from the evening's downpour. There is no need for you to add pneumonia to your present worries." While walking down the hall there was a smile on my face; perhaps Master Carolan would indeed recover.
I went into the guest chambers and started a fire to heat the air and light the room. I warmed up a brick and I then slid it underneath the sheets above the mattress. As I finished turning down the blankets, the boy who accompanied the harper into the hall came in to make sure all was ready for his master.
"Is everything ready yet? Has the food come up? He has just finished with a bath and hasn't eaten since morning. It would do him good for all the drink that he's had this day."
I looked at the young lad, who was still sopping with elements of the evening's weather. His teeth were chattering and he smelled of horse and saddle. I crinkled my nose and gave him a closer inspection, upon which, he appeared more my age than I had previously thought. He was about a foot taller than his master and a few inches taller than myself. His frame was lean and somewhat delicate, even though his bravado implied otherwise.
"Everything is being made ready if people would stop asking questions and leave the doings to the ones who do!" I ordered him out of the room for his own bath and told him not to return if he couldn't see fit to greet a person with a proper introduction.
"My name is John if it pleases you and I will not leave this chamber until I am satisfied that this room is acceptable to my standards."
In my mind I thought of any number of smart retorts to fly back at him. His manner so offended me that I prepared to unleash my tongue on his head. At that moment though, the old harper was led in humming absent-mindedly. I looked up in surprise and wondered how much of the conversation he had overheard.
Carolan's airy tune immediately stopped and a grin spread across his features. It was the same mischievous smile that had passed across his face earlier in the evening while he played his drunken jig.
"John, will you not go and do as the lady asks? You smell of wet leather and dirt. If you go quickly, I'm sure there will be some warm water left on the stove."
Although the guide walked out grudgingly, I was still rather unsettled with the whole affair. I assumed that the older man had listened to our entire conversation and made to give him a look of consternation for eavesdropping on others when my gaze met his eyes. His sight was unfocused; I had forgotten from among the many childhood stories told to me that the musician was blind.8
While I was lost in thought, the harper started chuckling. "Lass, my name is Toirdhealbhach o Cearbhallain9 though many call me Turlough Carolan. I am home at long last for tis my journeys end you understand?"
"I'm Judith sir," and said nothing else. I did understand Carolan's meaning, but did not want to recognize it. I would not believe that his time was fast approaching.
He walked toward me and continued. I could tell that the whisky was strong on his breath as he came near with a motion requesting guidance. He reached out and I took his hands, looking down at them as if to find wisdom there. The nails were long and slender to mark him the master of his art. Shaped like a quill, they would allow him to pluck the brass wire strings upon the willowed instrument.
"I was born in County Meath to a blacksmith in 1670. As a boy my father moved the family to this manor where he began to work for the MacDermott Roe's. Your mother and I grew up together Judith, though it has been a very long time since we have seen each other. You look very much like my memory of her."
"Yes sir," I said. "Many have noticed our likeness and Mother has told us many tales of your travels though she passed away some few summers ago. You are quite famous in these parts, especially being one of us. Quite a daring and witty youth always out for adventure... or so I'm told."10
"Yes, Yes. Tis true," he said. "Those times are all but over now. Dear, why do you not return come late morning and I'll have a planxty11 to sing for you?"
I gave his request some thought believing that he should spend his time sleeping rather than staying up all night and composing a silly song for an unimportant maid. As I was about to give my response, the window on the far side of the room blew open. A gust of cold air entered the chamber and the curtains flew about like banshees. A spray of heavy mist blew across my face surprising me so that I forgot to answer the question.
I led Carolan to the chair by the fire and rushed to close the window. I moved to the bed and removed the hot brick from under the sheets. Although the guest himself would be unaware of it, I relit three candles that had been extinguished by the storm's intrusion into our calm setting.
"I like you girl; you will come. It is good to have the young around. Now leave me be and let a poor man get some rest. I'm not in the mood for any nourishment right now, unless you have the liquid sort that comes with special medicinal properties. Maybe a nice spot of whisky?"
I went to the chair and led the man in his white linen night robe to the bed. Upon touch, his body seemed more frail and weary than his appearance gave away. His hand laid heavily upon my own and I promised that I would try to find him some relief.
On my way out the door Carolan addressed me one more time. "Don't let my son be giving you any more trouble now.12 Just be firm and use that God-given tongue of yours." I could picture him smiling and content as I walked to my own chamber at the other end of the hall.
***
I awoke the next morning and quickly made my way to the harper's room once my chores were finished. The stormy evening had cleared away the clouds and the day was bright and beautiful, if not cold as well. Late March always provides interesting weather and the past few days had been no exception.
Before I went to Master Carolan's room, I stopped by the kitchens and quietly took a bottle of whisky and a canter. I would make good on my promise and hoped that nobody would notice the missing items. I would be sure to return them as soon as possible.
On my way down the hall I remembered that the doctor had been summoned to the manor in order to find some remedy to the harper's failing health. I had seen him arrive earlier in the morning and hoped that Carolan would be fit enough to have visitors. Outside his room I met another servant who told me that he had fallen out of bed during the middle of the night and could not raise himself up.13 John had had to lift him back upon the mattress.
Very worried, I tried to make my way into the chamber where Carolan was sleeping. Many people tried to block my entrance but the commotion woke the harper from his sleep and he bade me enter.
"Sir, are ya doing better?"
"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."14
I had to laugh at the joke and noticed that Carolan himself broke another trademark grin. There was a lack of luster in his eyes though, and his smile quickly faded. He seemed so weak and small lying in such a vast bed and among so many blankets and pillows. I felt helpless and looked around the room. Lady O'Rourke, who was standing by the doctor and John, held a handkerchief to her tear stained face. I could not bear to see her in such spirits and turned back around to focus my attention on the harper.
"Did you bring me my nourishment lass? You would not forgo a man's last dying wish would ya?"
In response I sighed and squeezed his hand. Before anyone could protest I brought the canter and bottle from my apron and filled the glass with whisky. There were a few murmurs of disapproval before the doctor intervened and said that no harm could come of the drink. When Carolan finished the canter he spoke. "Judith, it is time for me to finish my end of the bargain.
I duly traveled round through Conn's territory
And I found life mighty and vigorous there.
By my baptism, for dispensing drink I never found
One who quenched my thirst aright but Judith Flynn."15
After his song had ended, I took the canter back and pulled the covers up to his neck. Before I had even left the room Carolan was sleeping peacefully again.
Later that day Lady O'Rourke came up and thanked me. The harper's song to me had been his last words. The house would write it down as the "Song of Farewell"16 and keep it in memory of the contributions that Turlough Carolan had made to the MacDermott Roe family and to the music of Ireland. Though I had only personally known him for a short time, I felt as if I had known him all my life. The stories that my mother passed on to me would follow down the generations of my own family.
Endnotes
1. Turlough Carolan (b. 1670, County Meath, Ire. -d. 25 March 1738, Alderford, County Roscommon) was one of the last Irish harpist-composers and the only one whose songs survive in both words and music. There are about 220 songs collected under his name.
"O'Carolan, Turlough. " Britannica Online. 1997. Online. Internet. 17 Mar. 1997.
2. Though the roads and the weather were inhospitable for a man on horseback, Carolan was a welcomed guest in the homes of his wealthy patrons where received food and lodging in repayment for his trade. The social status of traveling harpers was very high and Carolan became the most famous of them all.
Stevens, William. "Turlough O'Carolan Biography." Online. Internet. 17 Mar. 1997. Available
http://www.musicman.com/ag/tocbio.html.
The importance of these musicians had steadily eroded from the mid-1500's as the English government solidified its hold on the country. By changing the traditional patterns of land holding the rule of the hereditary chieftains was forever altered. With that change came the decline of the harper as a member of the chiefly household. By the time Carolan began to travel around Ireland, his status, although greatly esteemed, was still diminished from its previous historical levels.
Turlough Carolan: An Irish Harper. Online. Internet. 17 Mar 1997. Available http://plainfield.byass.com/~arte/carolan.html.
3. The Clairseach was the instrument used by the great bards of Ireland. Throughout ancient history, bards maintained a tradition of service and prestige that placed them next to the chieftains of the country.
Turlough Carolan: An Irish Harper. Online. Internet. 17 Mar 1997. Available
http://plainfield.bypass.com/~arte/carolan.html.
4. Mrs. O'Rourke was the eldest daughter of MacDermott, Prince of Coolavin. There is the possiblility that the song was composed for her. For simplicity's sake, it is assumed that Mrs. MacDermott Roe is Mrs. O'Rourke's mother and that the song was written for the elder and not the younger.