Artist Bio

Eibhlís Ní Ríordáin

Eibhlís Ní Ríordáin

Eibhlís Ní Ríordáin is at the forefront of the current revival movement to rediscover, and perform, the important but largely unknown harp song repertoire of the 18th-century Irish harpers. She is almost unique in singing these songs while accompanying herself on a copy of an 18th-century Irish wire-strung harp and using historical Irish harping techniques.

A native of Co. Cork, now living in Co. Wicklow, Eibhlís is a music graduate (University College Cork), prize-winning sean-nós singer, early Irish harpist, composer, arranger and music educator.

For her sean-nós singing, Eibhlís won Corn Mháire Nic Dhonnachadha at the Oireachtas (2016) and was also a finalist in at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2017 & 2018.

For the past number of years, the Historical Harp Society of Ireland has invited Eibhlís to perform in concert and to teach harp songs at ‘Scoil na gCláirseach – Festival of Early Irish Harp’, Kilkenny.

Eibhlís was recently (October 2020) awarded a Traditional Arts Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland, to research, reconstruct and develop her repertoire of the harp songs, performed or composed by the 18th-century female harpers, which are contained in Edward Bunting’s field transcription notebooks (and held in the Bunting Collection at Queen’s University, Belfast).