Donal O'Sullivan's "Irish Folk Music and Song" is fairly brief but informative, and agrees with Jack Campin's post. If I read O'Sullivan correctly, it seems that up to about 1550 harpers and bardic poets supported each other. He says that the "predominantly literary influence from a cultural standpoint was excercised by the court poets ... The poems were composed for the heads of the noble houses ... and they were intended to be accompanied by music played on the harp." None of this music, incidentally, has survived.

The invasions of Elizabeth, and later Cromwell, eventually destroyed the bardic schools, which had more or less disappeared by the mid-17th C. But the harpers survived for another hundred years or so, "adapting themselves to the changed circumstances; and those who composed metres for for their own melodies used the popular song metres as their vehicle".

O'Sullivan goes on to name some of the more notable harpers (apologies to Gaelic speakers, I don't know how to type the accents) :- Rory Dall O Cathlain, about 1550-1650, from County Derry but mainly resident in Scotland; Carrol O'Daly of County Wexford, who was a contemporary of O Cathlain and is thought to have written "Eileen Aroon"; Thomas Connellan of Sligo who died in Edinburgh about 1700; and of course Turlough Carolan (1670-1738).

Except for Carolan, very little is known about these harpers or their work. Less than 30 of their tunes have survived, which might contribute to the impression that the Irish harp was not played after Elizabeth's invasion.

I believe there has been some debate about whether Carolan should be regarded as being of an Irish school at all, perhaps being better described simply as a Baroque composer (i.e of an international school). I think O'Sullivan is worth quoting at length here :-

"During the first half of the 18th century the taste for Italian music was predominant in Dublin, the composers most in favour being Corelli, Vivaldi and Gemininiani. Carolan fell under their spell, being indeed enraptured with Corelli; and the form and melodic idiom of many of his later pieces give a clear indication of his deliberate imitation of his style. But the best of these (and they are numerous)are not imitations only. By the mysterious alchemy of genius he has given tham a character part Irish, part Italian, and wholly beautiful and sedate; and in one or two cases he has created melodies which perhaps not even Corelli himself could have attempted to rival."

O'Sullivan mentions the Harp Festival held over three days in July 1792 in Belfast, which employed ten harpers, three of whom were blind. Most of them were over 70, one being 97 years old. The age of these men might well indicate that the harp was in decline by this time, although of course that is arguable. Presumably the best musicains available were invited, but whether they were local or came from a wide area, or whether or not they had pupils, O'Sullivan does not say.

I think Dick has answered his own question of whether Elizabeth I was a factor in the demise of the Irish harp by pointing out that the last great harper was born in 1794, over 200 years after Kinsale.