The Disputed Irish Drum That Became the Heartbeat of Traditional Music
The bodhrán may be the most controversial instrument in Irish traditional music. Its origins are disputed, its name is debated — and yet no session sounds right without it.
The bodhrán may be the most controversial instrument in Irish traditional music. Its origins are disputed, its name is debated — and yet no session sounds right without it.
In the autumn of 1691, a defeated army stood at the walls of…
Every now and then in old Ireland, a musician would go missing…
Somewhere on the back roads of rural Ireland, behind a farmhouse kitchen door, you might still find a table, a few chairs, and a man who knows what you…
The sound has been described as something between a song and a…
Every autumn, across rural Ireland, a warning passed from farmer to…
There is a smell that older Dubliners and Corkonians remember from Saturday nights in the 1970s. It drifted from a bucket kept warm behind the bar, or was…
There are roughly 10,000 people alive today who can play the…
There is a rhyme that Irish mothers have whispered to…
You walk into a small Irish village, glance at the road sign,…