‘neath an Irish sky

For no particular reason, an Irish trad playlist.

When writing the chapter on Irish music in my book, I wanted to explore why the music was still so rich today –

According to Louise Mulcahy, “Irish traditional music has certainly gone from strength to strength over the years and is currently thriving.” There are, she says, many reasons for this : many universities now offer traditional music courses; there are several organisations set up to promote Irish traditional music; archival recordings are widely available; and Irish music festivals the world over provide exposure to the music. Few would argue with any of this. Fiddle ace Martin Hayes sees this though as anything but a simple natural progression. You can reproduce the tunes, he would say, but you can’t recreate the social and cultural context from whence they sprang. Traditional music “can no longer exist as a folk music, in the very pure sense of folk music rising out of the people.” So it has to find new ways of making itself relevant and new ways of evolving …

And here’s the evidence that it’s succeeding in renewing itself, because the quality of the tracks that I’ve chosen is nothing short of spectacular.