The Music of Ireland

Copyright © 2019

by Ralph F. Couey

It's tough to go anyplace in this world and not find at least one Irish pub.  And wherever there stands a pub, there will be a place where dedicated, talented musicians gather and joyously keep alive the traditional Irish music.

It may be a stretch, but it's hard to think of any other traditional form of national or cultural music that has found such wide embrasure.  Most people are familiar with the high-spirited quick-stepping music that boils out of the woodwork every year around St. Patrick's Day.  While many a glass of Jameson or Guinness has been hoisted to those tunes, very few of those celebrants are likely able to name any others beyond the well-known standards.

Traditional Irish music, however, is way more than just pub songs.  In many ways, it captures the spirit that has sustained the Emerald Isle.  Irish history is vastly complex, and defies simple analysis.  I won't attempt to recount it here, but suffice to say that it is very much a tangled web.  But the echoes of those events will be found in the music.  

There are different types of songs in the traditional book.  Jigs and reels, hornpipes, mazurkas, all of which with their own particular swing.  Most are instrumentals, but in a typical session there will be a few that will be sung.  The lyrics span the length and breadth of the Irish experience, not only in Ireland but also following those who emigrated elsewhere.  There are songs that were born in the rousing camaraderie of the pub, the at times glorious and stormy relationships between lad and lass.  But some of the most compelling came out of the Irish struggle for identity and independence.  There is s a common thread through those lyrics of a deep and abiding love for Ireland, not the political structures, but the land itself.  Even those songs about those emigrants reach back into the singer's memory of a beautiful green island that will always be home.

Its that common love that drives the sessions, experiencing the music and the emotions both good and bad.  Its looking around a room full of musicians passionate about keeping alive the music that defines what it means to be Irish.

Wherever you live, you can find a session, sometimes several every week.  And even if you don't go every time, you should at least go once.  Who knows?  You just might fall in love.