Gráinne Yeats
Irish harpist and singer, and also a historian of the Irish harp (1925–2013)
Gráinne Yeats (14 April 1925 – 18 April 2013) was an Irish harpist and singer, and also a historian of the Irish harp.
Biography
Yeat was born as Gráinne Ní hEigeartaigh in Dublin and raised bilingually in Irish and English. As well as obtaining a degree in history from Trinity College Dublin, she studied piano, voice and harp at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and also traditional songs and music from the Irish-speaking (Gaeltacht) areas of Ireland.
She wrote and researched the history and music of the Cláirseach (wire-strung harp), and she was one of the first professional musicians to revive and record this ancient traditional instrument.
She wrote entries about Turlough O'Carolan and other Irish harpers in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Gráinne Yeats was married to Michael Yeats, a Fianna Fáil politician and son of the poet W. B. Yeats. They had three daughters and a son, Caitriona, Siobhán, Síle, and Pádraig.
She died on 18 April 2013 aged 88.
Discs
The Belfast Harp Festival 1792–1992 Féile Cruitirí Bhéal Feirste: Gael-Linn CEFCD 156 (double-CD, 1992).
Books and publications
"Some Thoughts on Irish Harp Music", in Ceol vol.
“Gráinne Yeats” enters the record as irish harpist and singer, and also a historian of the Irish harp (1925–2013). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gráinne, Yeats and Irish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5612739. VIAF identifies the subject as 306322709. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2013, 1792 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gráinne Yeats” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.