Amhlaeibh Mac Innaighneorach

Amhlaeibh Mac Innaighneorach, Chief Harper of Ireland, died 1168.

Mac Innaighneorach is one of the earliest recorded Irish professional musicians. The Annals of the Four Masters call him the chief ollamh of Ireland in harp-playing but provide no other details of his life.

The existence of his obituary is thought to denote his profession's newly-acquired respectability, as there are very few direct references to professional musicians in Ireland prior to his lifetime. Nevertheless, musicians would never hold the same esteem as poets, lawyers and historians in Gaelic culture.

References

• Musical instruments in Ireland 9th 14th centuries: A review of the organological evidence, Ann Buckley, pp. 13–57, Irish Musical Studies i, Blackrock, County Dublin, 1990
• Music and musicians in medieval Irish society, Ann Buckley, pp. 165–190, Early Music xxviii, no.2, May 2000
• Music in Prehistoric and Medieval Ireland, Ann Buckley, pp. 744–813, in A New History of Ireland, volume one, Oxford, 2005.

External links

• http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005B/index.html