Irish music

The Fleadh Cheoil is Ireland’s great music feast, where 400,000 visitors descend on one town each summer for sessions that last until dawn.

Sean-nós is Ireland’s ancient unaccompanied singing tradition — performed in the Irish language, shaped by centuries of feeling. Here’s what makes it unlike anything else.

Step inside an Irish trad session and you’ll feel the magic instantly — but there are unwritten rules every first-timer needs to know before walking in.

The uilleann pipes are Ireland’s unique national bagpipe — played sitting down, inflated by elbow bellows, and capable of sounds no other instrument quite matches. Here’s the story behind them.

The bodhrán is the heartbeat of Irish trad music — but its true origins remain fiercely debated. Discover the surprising story behind this famous drum.

Sean-nós is Ireland’s oldest and most haunting vocal tradition — a solo singing style in the Irish language that predates every instrument, needs no backing, and moves people to silence wherever it is heard.

Every Irish trad session has unwritten rules that locals never explain to visitors. From the bodhrán to the floor, here’s what you need to know.

Discover how the banjo — born in West Africa, shaped in America — crossed the Atlantic to become one of the most beloved instruments in Irish traditional music.

There are grander instruments.

In 1688, a young man of eighteen lay in bed, blind, his life…