Wild goats are becoming scarce in the Irish countryside and some are blaming bodhran players. It’s becoming more difficult each year to find a male mountain goat to preside over the annual Puck Fair in Killorglin, Co Kerry, according to chief goat-catcher Frank Joy.
This year, Frank and his team failed to find a goat on [...]

Song collector and folklorist Tom Munnelly was born in Rathmines in Dublin on May 25, 1944, and grew up in Crumlin. His parents, Tom Munnelly and Christina Gannon were Dubliners. From an early age, his love of singing was evident, whether in the midst of family gatherings or hostelling with An Óige.
His interest in collecting songs [...]

Joe Shannon was born in 1920 near Kiltimagh, in Co Mayo. All of his seven older brothers played traditional music. When he was a young boy, his cousins and neighbours gathered at night at his family’s home to play fiddles, flutes, tin whistles, and melodeons. Joe began to play the tin whistle, [...]

While a senior at Roxbury Mission High School in Massachusetts, Joe Derrane recorded the first of what eventually became sixteen 78-rpm records that changed the course of Irish-American accordion music. These recordings, made in the late 1940s, featured Joe on the button accordion performing with a combination of ornamentation, rhythm, power, [...]

Mick Moloney was born November 15, 1944, in Limerick. He began playing tenor banjo at 16 years of age. As a teenager he listened to American folk singers, especially the music of the Weavers and Burl Ives. He remembers that there was not a lot of traditional instrumental music being played where [...]

Flute player Mike Rafferty has been honoured by the US National Endowment for the Arts with a 2010 Heritage Award.
Born in 1926, Mike Rafferty grew up in Ballinakill, East Galway, on a 12-acre farm. In the heart of a locality steeped in the very best of traditional music, he learned to play music from [...]

Aimee Farrell-Courtney from Ratoath in Co. Meath was crowned World Bodhrán Champion 2010 at the annual festival in Milltown in Co. Kerry on June 7. Aimee came first of 15 entries in the senior competition,  judged by Donal Lunny, Connor Lyons and Sandra Joyce. She has being playing the Bodhrán for 13 [...]

Johnny O’Leary was born on June 6, 1923, in Maulykevane, about seven miles from Rathmore and four miles from Gneeveguilla in County Kerry. The young Johnny was always listening to the tunes when Tom Billy Murphy from Ballydesmond, also known as The Blind Fiddler, used to teach Johnny’s uncle, Dan O’Leary, to play the fiddle.
Johnny’s [...]

Renowned Donegal fiddler Dinny McLaughlin from Buncrana has been awarded the International Fund for Ireland’s Intergenerational Award. The award is for his contribution in passing on music and dancing traditions. It also recognises the fact that several Inishowen dancing and fiddle teachers have been instructed by Dinny.
“It was nice to know that the work you [...]

Originally recorded by Liam Devally, the song was made famous in the early 1960s when recorded by Sean O Se to an arrangement by Sean O Riada. From an original poem by Donal O Mullain in the early 20th century, the words have probably been amended (the reference to showjumping champion Eddie Macken in the [...]

Piper Seán McKiernan lives in Carna in Co. Galway, and is a native Irish speaker. His mother’s family home in Coillín, Carna, where he now lives, is situated in the heartland of the great sean nós and folklore tradition. Seán’s grandfather Pádraic Mac Con Iomaire was acknowledged as man [...]

I’ve never been to Coolea in West Cork. But as the years roll by, I get a clearer picture of its landscape. I vividly recall RTE footage of Sean O Riada standing elegantly in his sittingroom, one hand resting on the piano, as tells us in his schoolroom manner about, say, Johnny Doherty and the [...]

The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) has moved against several top Irish blogs, demanding they pay hundreds of euro annually to continue sharing songs – even if they are sent to them by the artists and labels themselves, according to the Guardian newspaper.
So far, IMRO has contacted only three Irish blogs, but [...]

Dervish made history as their Sligo pub session on May 2 was beamed to over 30,000 people on the internet for the release their Live Album & DVD From Stage to Stage.
Dervish celebrated their 21st birthday in style as the band played a dynamic pub session of traditional Irish music at the [...]

Cuban, Irish and Canadian Celts share music and dance traditions …

NUIG is starting a new two year diploma in Irish music at the Galway campus this September. The diploma is offered on a part-time basis one evening per week (Wednesday) and runs over a two year period, at the end of which students will receive a Diploma in Irish Music Studies. Topics covered [...]

Last year the Kilfenora Ceili Band marked their hundreth birthday with a hectic schedule, including Glastonbury Festival. So time for the centenarians to hang up their instruments? Far from it, the Kilfenora continue to evolve. Their performance at Glor in Ennis on April 24 looks interesting, with additional players and unusual instruments joining them.
“The [...]

History was made on Saturday, May 1,  as one of the world’s oldest recorded festivals was rekindled at the Hill of Uisneach in Co. Westmeath and at over two dozen sites nationwide.
Originally known as Bealtaine, the summertime festival was an important event on the worldwide calendar, attracting people from the four [...]

TG4’s televised competiton for dancers of all ages, disciplines and codes, An Jig Gig, is returning for another season. In a nail-biting final last December, Irish Beats triumphed over World Champion Clodagh Roper, Celtic Roots, and The Mark Donnellan Memorial Team. The search for An Gig Jig Champion 2010 is now under [...]

FAME came in his 60th year to singer and fiddle player Dessie O’Halloran of Inishboffin The year 2001 saw him travel from his Atlantic island home off the Galway/Mayo coast to perform in Europe and [...]