Irish harpist in London: ‘I wasn’t out on the rugged Beara Peninsula any more’

When I moved to Bounds Green in north London 2½ years ago, the name of the place left me hopeful that I would be met with an abundance of green, open space.

On the bounds of a sprawling metropolis, I thought that one might perhaps be better able to hear the birds and see the stars. However, as I was confronted with the realities of life in the vibrant suburb, I was again reminded that this is London; I wasn’t out on the rugged Beara Peninsula any more.

Upon relocating to London from Dublin in 2018, I was fortunate enough to land in Goodenough College, a postgraduate residence hidden in a little square right in the heart of Bloomsbury. I was starting my master’s at the Royal College of Music, and Goodenough offered residential scholarships in exchange for contributing to its multicultural community.

[ Irish in London: ‘Nobody was making me stay. I could have left at any time and gone home to Sligo ... That was 24 years ago’ ]

While a student at the RCM, I supplemented my studies by performing and working part-time at Travis and Emery Music Bookstore, located down the iconic Cecil Court just off Leicester Square. The shop sells second-hand and antiquarian books and scores with all employees being musicians or actors. Our franking machine, affectionately named “César Frank” after the Belgian-French Romantic composer, is nestled in a small nook behind the desk. You can often find an interesting customer with a story to share perched on one of the stools, or some musicians dropping by for a score on their break from rehearsals.

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I’m now working part-time as the artistic administrator for Irish Heritage, a charity that supports emerging Irish musicians in the UK. It’s our 50th anniversary year and we have exciting events planned at venues, including the Irish Embassy and Leighton House.

I help to organise the concerts and to run the annual bursary programme with support from my colleagues. Irish Heritage was a huge help to me when I first arrived in London and I feel grateful to be able to now work for this wonderful organisation.

I also teach harp at the Irish Cultural Centre and at Junior King’s School in Canterbury as well as privately from my home (away from home) in Bounds Green.

I launched my debut album, Beara, at the London Irish Centre on April 11th. I recorded it last year with flautist Robert Harvey. It’s a project very close to my heart as it pairs my own compositions inspired by the Beara Peninsula on the southwest of Ireland, with tunes written and collected on the peninsula since the 18th century. It also draws inspiration from the legend of Princess Beara, the daughter of the King of the Castile, who it is said sailed to Ireland to marry Owen Mor, King of Ireland, around 120 AD.

My father, artist Claudio Viscardi, did the cover art for the album, beautifully depicting our home place of Lauragh. We started our Irish launch tour in Helen’s Bar, Kilmackillogue, down by the harbour, looking out to sea. We will have a further tour over the summer with dates to be announced soon.

[ Irish woman among photographers honoured at global awards in London ]

Alongside music, I’ve always had a love of literature, inherited from my mother who studied languages at University College Cork. I’m a member of the London Library, nestled in the corner of St James’s Square and regularly do my admin work from there, as well as writing in my spare time. I premiered Air by Clare Elton, based on Christina Rossetti’s poem, Who Has Seen the Wind at Wigmore Hall, with my early music group, Nobody’s Jig, and accompanied counter tenor Hugh Cutting for a recital in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe, for the BBC Shakespeare Focus launch.

I will accompany Hugh for his BBC Radio 3 lunchtime concert on May 6th at Wigmore Hall, where we’re joined by guitarist/lutenist Daniel Murphy and violist Leo Appel. It is a privilege to include some folk music in this concert and the greater, universal appreciation for this genre in recent years is very encouraging, and important.

I feel it is a time of exciting, musical possibility, where my own love of Irish traditional, baroque and classical music can be given equal voice.

I am also delighted to be a 2024 UK Harp Association Emerging Artist, where I look forward to curating performances with my fellow artists in the autumn.

[ We must do more to welcome Irish people returning home ]

My twin brother, Conor, a climate policy adviser and urban planner also based in London, and I, often come home to Kerry and find there is nothing like the open spaces and natural beauty of the place to recalibrate and to escape a little from the busyness of London life.

I’m often asked if I would ever move back to Beara and I don’t quite know the answer to that yet, though it will always certainly hold a special place in my heart; it will always be home.

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