Traditional Irish Music
Irish music
Music is a big part of life in Ireland. Traditional Irish music dates back over 2000 years and remains an important tradition. Back in the days, there wasn’t much to do on the island. Also, many people couldn’t read. To have some fun they got together in the pubs to tell each other stories, play music and dance! There are two main categories in the music: slow ballad songs or fast dancing songs.
Many typical Irish songs are performed a lot of times. Such as the song: ‘Rocky Road to Dublin’ which is a 19th-century Irish song written by the Irish poet D. K. Gavan. It is about his travels from his home in Ireland to Liverpool. Click here to watch a choir from Dublin ‘The Ramparts’ perform the song. Another famous Irish song that you might know is ‘Whiskey in the Jar’. This song was initially written in the seventeenth century but is recorded many times recently as well. Click on the video to see a live version of ‘The Dubliners’.
Irish dancing
During the 1994 Eurovision song contest in Dublin, a group of Irish dancers, called ‘Riverdance’, performed the show of their lives. The audience was blown away by their performance, and it became known all over the world. Click on the video on the right to see this notorious performance.
Before the Riverdance group became famous, Irish dancing was already a big part of the heritage and culture of Ireland. The dance came from the Celts and Druids that used to live on the island. They were known for dancing in formations around trees and secret stones. It is transformed into a type of dance where very precise and quick foot movements are synchronized in big formations. The most recognized way of Irish dancing is with hard shoes. It makes a clicking sound when they tap it on a hard surface and contributes to the Irish music’s rhythm. Nowadays, Irish dancing is still very popular. Some Irish dancing groups do tend to make it a bit more modern. Click here to watch a modern version of Irish dancing during the talent show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.