Irish name for the harp (cognate with the Scottish Gaelic clàrsach). The term is documented from the mid-15th century onwards; variant forms include clarseach, clarsech and clarseth. ‘Cláirseach’ occurs frequently in Scottish and English documents, where it presumably denoted the contemporary Celtic harp, Irish or Scottish, as distinct from the mainland European forms. During the 16th century the small low-headed Irish harps were superseded by large low-headed harps. In Irish, therefore, ‘cláirseach’ may have denoted the large variety as distinct from the smaller; this had been called ‘cruit’, the old Irish lyre name which had been transferred to the frame harp centuries earlier. Literally, ‘cláirseach’ means ‘little flat thing’; the satirical use of an opposite characteristic plus a diminutive is typically Celtic. In the 17th century ‘cláirseach’ and ‘cruit’ seem to have been interchangeable; for example, in the poem attributed to Fear Flatha O Gnim (fl c1600) addressed to the harper Nicholas Dall Pierse, they are used synonymously. According to Edward Bunting, in Ireland in 1792 ‘cláirseach’ was an unspecific harp name, low- and high-headed forms being differentiated as crom cruit and cinnard cruit. Modern neo-Celtic harps with hand-turned tangents to produce chromatic notes are now often called ‘cláirseach’.
For details of the history of the harp in Ireland, see Harp, §V, 1(i–ii); see also Irish harp (i).
JOAN RIMMER