Sonorous strains of the Emerald Isle

Way back in Dingle (an inexhaustible topic, apparently [1, 2, 3]), I saw a small, ancient church on top of the town hill with a sign advertising traditional music. While it's very common for pubs to have nightly traditional music ("trad music" for those in the know) especially in touristy areas (and reassuring when I drive by a pub in some obscure town and hear music coming from it for the locals), I thought that this was in a bit more of a concert format. Plus, I don't think that trad music in pubs usually feature the Uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes, pronounced "ill-en") so this was a rare opportunity.

The concert started out with a man on his Irish whistle, then a flute, and then another fellow came out and played some Irish songs on his guitar. The structure of the concert was to increase the complexity by adding musicians and instruments, and by the end of the night, we'd heard the pipe, flute, guitar, drum, and accordion from four people... plus a little jig dancing at the end.

Most of the singing was in English, but the first language of the two women was Irish (not uncommon among Western Irish), so they sang a few songs in their mother tongue. Irish is a beautiful language to listen to (it kinda makes me feel like I'm in Lord of the Rings), but sometimes is double-take-inducing; the sounds are so close to English that initially it just sounds like a really thick accent. (The picture in the video below is of the church venue.)

It seems as though the Irish are widely active in continuing their musical heritage, as evidenced by the abundant trad music signs and public performances. In both Kilkenny and Cobh I saw street performers trying to make a few extra euro (reminded me of my older sibs' string quartet every weekend at Portland Saturday Market to raise funds to travel Europe).

In Limerick--an arguably non-touristy town--there's a community of musicians, members of which gather at our campus pub (yes, our campus has a pub!) every Wednesday night and put on impromptu concerts. I stumbled upon one a while back, but wanted to go back to enjoy the music and take some photos. Tonight we had two lasses and three lads, covering fiddle, guitar, drum, concertina, and banjo (?).

The music was enjoyable and upbeat, but I had to get back to work with some students in preparation for their Biotransport exam tomorrow... oh yeah, my primary purpose here is schooling...

watch out, world.

I like to purchase musical instruments from different countries that I visit (I bought an erhu in China), and I'd initially considered buying a token Irish harp... but then I saw the price tag and easily talked myself into getting something much more manageable (and affordable). I settled on an Irish whistle from an awesome little music shop in Kilkenny (because everything in Kilkenny is awesome). Maybe I'll join the campus pub group next Wednesday.

Oh wait, I'm already booked then for the regional hurling final! Dang. Looks like I'll have to foolhardily whistle another time.