Irish Flute

Irish music is rather distinctive and it has influenced dissimilar genres in the United States. It travelled to the US in the 1800s when millions of people emigrated to Chicago, Boston and New York because of the famine and deprivation in Ireland.

Irish music tells the story of the persons in good times and in bad. There was a wondrous collection brought out in regards to 20 years ago entitled “Bringing It All Back Home:The Influence of Irish Music ” which contained a lot of the Irish songs that were popularised in American Culture such as Kilkelly, The Lakes of Pontchertain and Sonny. Kilkelly is one of the saddest songs ever written comprising letters from a father to his son in England starting in 1860 to tell him the news regarding deaths in the family and saying how good it would be to see the son again.

Irish music was revived in the US in the 1960s by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem with songs like Will Ye Go Lassie Go and Roddy Mc Corley. In fact the Clancy Brothers were an influence on a young Bob Dylan ‘s folk singing style. The following instruments are many times employed in Irish traditionalisti music – fiddle, guitar, uileann pipes, accordion (piano or button, bodhran, flute, tin whistle, harp and perhaps piano. For me one of the most pretty sounds is the voice – Sean Keane singing Ellis Island or Sinead O Connor singing from her 2002 album Sean Nos Nua. Sean nos refers to the conventional Irish way of singing which is at times called comhaille.

In the 1970s groups like Planxty and Clannad emerged with Clannad singing in the Irish language. I expended a few summers in the Loch an Iuir Gaeltacht in County Donegal and Clannad in truth performed for the students in the college when I was there. I was only when it comes to 11 at the time – Teach Leo where they had been brought up was only in regards to 4 miles away in Crolly. I do not forget they were good – this was before Enya achieved massive global acclaim with her album Watermark.

I played the violin and piano myself but I learned classical music at school. My grandfather, James Eddie Mc Cluskey from County Monaghan played the fiddle and he taught me a couple of Irish tunes – The Boys of the Bluehill and The Dawning of the Day. He always talked in regards to “An Chualainn” which I have just been competent to find played on the internet. The wonders of innovative technology!

Traditional Irish music has likewise been fused with rock and roll and this started in the 1970s with Horslips, Thin Lizzy, The Pogues and Rory Gallagher – one of the most widely known and esteemed recent songs is Fairytale of New York which Shane Mc Gowan firstborn performed with Kirsty Mc Coll in 1987. U2, Van Morrison, The Cranberries and The Corrs are all groups that have been very successful in recent years.

Irish music may be disunited into drinking songs, like Dirty Old Town, Whiskey in the Jar, marching songs like Roddy Mc Corley, The Foggy Dew, emigrant songs like Ellis Island, The Mountains of Mourne, ballads like Boolavogue, Arthur Mc Bride and the Minstrel Boy and love songs like Down by the Sally Gardens (WB Yeats) and Will Ye Go Lassie Go? (covered by Thin Lizzy). One of the most famous Irish songs of all The Fields of Athenry is genuinely a Famine Song even though it is sung lately at football matches and rugby matches.

What is aweinspiring is that all of the above music and songs has pulled through through the years. These are a huge portion of Irish culture. Matt Molloy of the Chieftains has given a concert flute to a NASA astronaut called Catherine Coleman who is going to play a heap of traditionalisti music on a space mission soon. She reportedly said to Matt Molloy “Your music always brings me to a particular place so I thought I’d fetch yours to one”.

The Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin holds a lot of this music, supported by the Arts Council, the Office of Public Works and RTE but it is actually the singing of these songs and the playing of this music that keeps it alive for future generations.

Irish Flute Image

Irish Flute Picture

Irish Flute Photo

Irish Flute Image