The Harp That Once

About the Book

The Harp That Once .... a-coming-of-age novel, but with a haunting difference.

Christopher Bennett is a product of Ireland in the 1950's, a circumstance and historical moment very different from the hectic, present-day era of the 'Celtic Tiger.' Neighbours live safely in the arms of tradition; the fixed opinion is precisely that. The guardians of the system comport themselves "like those animals and plants whose defence mechanisms are forever at the ready to sting, poison, or swallow real or imaginary enemies."

Christopher, too, is firmly rooted in this tight universe, yet he also resides in the "thin place" of a higher plane. In these realms, the truly mundane constantly rubs shoulders with the mystical and far removed. Ultimately, it takes an insightful reader to land both fish at the end of the same line.

The Harp That Once gives us an adventure, a challenge, and a tale that will haunt, long after the last page is turned.

About the Author

Finnbarr Dunphy is a writer, educator, world traveller, and a man whose great passions include languages, laughter, and "any sport that involves a ball". He is an Irishman, a native of Inchicore, Dublin, who, like the famous wandering Irish monks (peregrinati) of the Middle Ages, has lived, learned, and taught on four continents for over 40 years. In one phase of his life, he was a Christian Brother.

In his native land, he was one of those rare young men who was both a gifted athlete and a top-drawer scholar. In his early twenties, those talents pulled him out of Ireland and onto his own life's journey into the broad world and toward his personal quest to gain a global knowledge. He is, as he likes to joke, "illiterate" in several languages, speaking and reading five fluently. He went first to Africa, where he taught and coached in international schools, later becoming headmaster of one of the best boarding schools on that continent. Next, he found himself on the Indian sub-continent, working both as a teacher and as a part of the diplomatic community. Before coming to North America, he spent several years in Argentina. For this time, he was primarily involved in the Foreign Service.

Finn is a founding director of Teach Teanga, Ltd., a private company that develops and publishes language texts that employ a unique teaching system which he pioneered. He now divides his time between Ireland and South Carolina where he lives with his wife, Elisa, a gifted musician & teacher in her own right, their two cats, and their African Grey parrot, Mumba.