Irish music

An Irish trad session has unwritten rules that nobody puts on a sign. Here is what visitors need to know before sitting down.

Discover why musicians from Japan, Argentina, and every corner of Europe book flights to tiny Doolin in County Clare — a village with one road and three pubs that became Ireland’s traditional music capital.

The Irish wooden flute has an unlikely origin story — find out how an orchestra’s cast-off became the heartbeat of traditional Irish music.

Ireland is the only country whose national symbol is a musical instrument. But the harp on your Guinness pint faces the opposite direction to the one on your passport — and the reason reveals a century-old legal dispute and a story of survival.

Discover Sliabh Luachra — the remote Kerry-Cork highland where a music tradition of polkas and slides survived when the rest of Ireland moved on.

The Irish tin whistle costs less than a pint and looks deceptively simple — yet mastering the feadóg stáin takes years of dedicated practice.

Discover the ancient Irish singing tradition of sean-nós singing — why audiences look away, how it survived, and where to find it in Ireland today.

Step inside an Irish trad session and you sense rules nobody wrote down. Here is the code locals know — and visitors almost always get wrong.

Discover why Irish fiddle music sounds completely different in Sligo, Clare and Donegal — and how three regional styles shaped a nation’s music.

The uilleann pipes are Ireland’s most complex instrument — played sitting down, with drones and regulators. Here’s why they take 21 years to master.