Ian C,
Here is aquote from Irish Song Tradition,by Sean O Boyle[1976].
In1603 a proclamation was issued by the lord president of munster for the extermination buy martial law of ALL manner of bards,harpers etc,and within ten days,Queen Elizabeth herself ordered Lord Barrymore
to hang the harpers wherever found.
all through the seventeeth century they were banned and persecuted.