Music: Turlough Carolan

This St. Patrick's Day, Shangrila Towers celebrates the music of Ireland! In this post, we'll look at the life and work of one of Ireland's greatest composers, Turlough Carolan, a highly influential 17th century harpist:

Turlough Carolan's biography sounds like the plot of a sappy inspirational movie: when he was 18 years old, Carolan was blinded by smallpox, learned to play the harp thanks to funding from a prominent Irish family, and spent the rest of his life on the road, composing and performing his songs for numerous patrons:


His music remains quite popular today. Here's a neat rendition of "Carolan's Welcome" by David Rogers - the classical guitar really brings out the Baroque in the piece:



Wildest Carolan cover? Probably "Peggy Brown," by Polish rock band Myslovitz: