One of Ireland’s greatest living traditional musicians, Matt Molloy, has said the key to a great traditional Irish music session (or seisiún, as it’s known in Gaelic) is not to talk, but to listen. This might seem problematic considering the music can often be performed as if there’s no tomorrow, but he has a point. It’s a bit like the aural equivalent of reading between the lines, except when you’re at a seisiún the last thing you might want to do is keep quiet.
What was once a particularly rural Irish experience progressed during the Gaelic Revival of the late-19th and early-20th centuries when the first recordings of traditional music were made. As decades passed, emigration from numerous rural communities, villages, towns and cities played a significant part in its development, sometimes modifying it, sometimes leaving it intact. Either approach created resilient connections to the past, and whether through songs or instrumental passages it is this tender yearning, this spiritual ache, that gives the music such power (Ireland, as the poet Seamus Heaney noted, is as much a geographical entity as a “country of the mind”).
Come the 1960s, the influence of classically trained composer Seán Ó Ríada brought traditional music out of the cottages and into the concert halls, while a decade or three later groups such as The Chieftains, Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Altan, Clannad, Kila, The Gloaming and Lankum stretched its creative reach. The result of such experimentation of the form is that traditional Irish music is as far from a museum piece as you can get – it continues to subtly transform, to flow, while firmly holding onto its roots. Here are several storied places to hear it now.
Uilleann bagpipes, which are bellows-blown and played sitting down
Bodhrán, a drum played while seated using a tipper (short wooden stick)
Irish fiddle
Tin whistle
Button accordion
Irish flute, fashioned out of wood, which has a warm, breathy tone
Uilleann bagpipes, which are bellows-blown and played sitting down
Bodhrán, a drum played while seated using a tipper (short wooden stick)
Irish fiddle
Tin whistle
Button accordion
Irish flute, fashioned out of wood, which has a warm, breathy tone
The Cobblestone, Dublin
When it comes to traditional Irish music in the heart of Dublin, it’s impossible to beat The Cobblestone. Resolutely outmoded (“an old man’s pub,” according to the youth) and with Irish culture almost visibly seeping from its walls, the best time to secure a seat is between 5pm-7pm – any time after that and it’s standing room only. What to expect? Trad music of every stripe, from stomping jigs to rollicking reels, from sublime uilleann pipe playing to pin-drop-quiet unaccompanied singing (known as sean-nós, Gaelic for ‘old style’).
The Corner House, Cork
Known with justification as “Cork’s House of Music,” the Corner House hosts regular sessions throughout the week. Many of the city’s best-known musicians gather at tables and deliver tunes at a no-nonsense, energetic pace. One of the many pleasures is the open welcome offered to visiting players – there are no egos on display, only instinctive, often otherworldly skills. Between the music and walls adorned with decades of memorabilia, you don’t soak up the atmosphere here, you breathe it in.
