Gaelic Ireland
The Irish language, otherwise known as Gaelic (spoken also in Scotland), is a member of the Celtic family of Indo-European languages, other members of which are Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Manx, Breton, Gaulish, Most of the Celtic languages are either extinct, or endangered by languages like English, French, and Spanish. Even in their homelands they have become minority or heritage languages.
Here is an example of spoken Gaelic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKcvZmtar9g
The status of Irish Gaelic is dramatized in the short movie "Yu Min is ainm dom" (My name is Yu Ming), which shows a Chinese student who falls in love with the idea of Ireland, learns Gaelic in China, then emigrates, encountering the linguistic reality. Here is one scene from the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KzmZ17uD1M
The prestige musical instrument was the harp, which was the instrument of choice for professional singer/story-tellers known as bards. Bards were considered to be sacred, and would often used as emissaries between various Irish kings or chieftains. It was considered a capital offense to harm a bard.
Their songs were considered to have magic powers, that could effect the elements, animals, or people. If a bard was angry at someone, they could compose a song mocking them, known as a satire, that could physically scar a person's face with its power. They were the repositories of oral histories for the elites, and were often the focus of mobilizing political power.
Rebellions occurred periodically and were savagely put down. Many Irish were sent as indentured labor to colonies in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
To quote from the Wikipedia article
The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór, [anˠ ˈgɔɾˠt̪ˠa mˠoːɾˠ]) or the Great Hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine, because about two-fifths of the population was solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. During the famine, about one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.
The proximate cause of famine was potato blight,[which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s. However, the impact in Ireland was disproportionate, as one third of the population was dependent on the potato for a range of ethnic, religious, political, social, and economic reasons, such as land acquisition, absentee landlords, and the Corn Laws, which all contributed to the disaster to varying degrees and remain the subject of intense historical debate.
The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The famine and its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for Irish nationalist movements. The already strained relations between many Irish and the British Crown soured further, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions, and boosting Irish nationalism and republicanism in Ireland and among Irish emigrants in the United States and elsewhere..
Many song refer to the hardships of starvation and forced migration.
By the 19th Century, traditional Irish music consistent of the following genres of music
Musical instruments
In current practice the following instruments are used, many of which are foreign imports over the past three hundred years.
Fiddle--there are many regional styles of playing.
This example is from Donegal in the North of Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HjQ8BOOwJ4
The document is on the style from Sligo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyPJa68NvG4
Flute--this instrument was introduced into Ireland in the early 19th Century, when the older style flutes with no or few keys were replaced in England by the new style with many keys. The cheaper old instruments were dumped on the market, allowing poor Irish musicians to buy them. The following example is a reel (dance in 4/4 time) played by the great Sligo-style flutist Matt Molloy. "The Bucks of Oranmore" is one of the hardest pieces to play, and is traditionally played at the end of a gathering of musicians, known as a session or seisun, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS7NxJDp4zQ.
Concertina--a type of small button accordion. This example is by the wonderful Monsignor Charles Coen (one of the nicest people you will ever meet). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRC85Og4Frw
Tin whistle--a small recorder-like duct flute. This example by the great Mary Bergin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdJYbOkbetQ
Bodhran--a frame drum played with a stick called a tipper. Originally it was an agricultural implement used for winnowing grain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vtMK0q5ZWA
Uillean pipes (elbow pipes)--bagpipes powered by a bellows instead of blowing to inflate the bag. The main parts are the chanter (melody pipe), drone pipes, and registers (piples with valves to play chords). It became popular when the Great Irish War Pipes, played standing, were outlawed by the British. This example is by Cillian Vallely, accompanied by Alan Murray on guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoiB1-Ubn2I
Bouzouki--originally a Greek instrument, it was altered to suit the needs of Irish music in the 1960s by musicians like Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny (shown here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=831h8s92aaY
Songs in Irish Gaelic
(Sean Nos--old songs). Characteristics include monophonic (acapella) performances and melismatic melodies, often with sad lyrics known as laments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8paj2hQHIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLUY_WLMQoc
Other Gaelic songs
Warrior's song--commemorating the 16th century pirate queen Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O'Malley) who resisted the English conquest by Queen Elizabeth I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncZc7GwpVXU
" Mo Ghile Mar" (My Gallant Darling" is a lament over the defeat of the Scottish Bonnie Prince Charlie that crushed the hope of the Celtic peoples in the 18th Century https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbxgMa8d3e8
Songs in English--various content, including English language Sean Nos songs. Examples:
"Edward Connor" deals with the pains of emigration. It is a typical ballad (song that tells a story), in that it begins with "Hark all ye", as if by a storyteller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVZO_8UduZI
Edward Connors Words & Music: trad. / Arr.: Andy Irvine
Come all you loyal Irishmen and listen all for a while
All you that wants to emigrate and leave the Emerald Isle
A kind advice I will give you which you must bear in mind
How you will be forsaken when you leave your land behind
My name is Edward Connors and the same I'll ne'er disown
I used to live in happiness near unto Portglenone
I sold my farm as you will hear which grieves my heart full sore
And I sailed away to Amerikay and left the Shamrock shore
For my mind it was deluded by letters that were sent
By those that a few years ago to Canada had went
They said that they like princes lived and earning gold galore
And they laughed at our misfortune here at home on the Shamrock shore
So it's with my wife and my family to Belfast I went down
We booked our passage on a ship to Quebec she was bound
My money it was growing short when we laid in sea-store
But I thought my fortune would be won when we reached the other shore
When we were scarce three days at sea a storm it soon arose
It threw our ship on her beam end and woke us from our repose
Our sea-store then it was destroyed by water that down did pour
How happy we would then have been at home on the Shamrock shore
And when we were nine long days at sea our sea-store was all gone
And there upon the ocean wide with nowhere for to run
But for our captain's kindliness he kindly gave us more
We would have died with hunger e'er we reached the other shore
And it's when we landed in Quebec the sight that met our eyes
Three hundred of our Irish boys that did us sore surprise
With a sorrowful lamentation charity they did crave
And the little trifle we had left to them we freely gave
We stayed three weeks in the town of Quebec hoping some work to find
My money it was growing short which troubled my mind
For I had friends when I had cash but none when I was poor
I never met with friendship yet like this on the Shamrock shore
Well we stayed around Quebec town till our money it was all gone
Still hoping for employment but work we could find none
And in this place it was the case with many hundreds more
We oftimes wished that we were home all on the Shamrock shore
So come all who are intending now strange countries for to roam
Bear in mind you have as good as Canada at home
Before that you cross over the main where foaming billows roar
Think on the happy days you spent all on the Shamrock shore
:The Banks of the Bann" is a love song, and is set to an old hymn tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq01OuEGCfA&t=14s
"The Rock Road to Dublin" is a song about difficulties of moving to Dublin then to Liverpool to look for work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3nXku80y2Y
"Star of the County Down" is a dance tune in 4/4 called a reel, again a bit of a love song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXLnSkGmTdQ
Instrumental slow airs
This is a slow air played on the Irish Uillean pipes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P40YOU8ggJk
Dance music
The type of Irish music familiar to most people is the repertoire of instrumental dances. The main dances types are:
Reel--a fast dance in 4/4 time. This example "Christmas Eve Reel" is played on fiddle and flute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob57b7_LLfA
Jig--a fast dance in 6/8 time, a compound meter counted in two groups of three. This example, a set of jigs is performed on tin whistle, fiddle, and guitar, the pieces are "Lark in the Morning", "Humours of Ennistymon", "Cook in the Kitchen" and "Ship in Full Sail" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vitEqd5pUdg.
Slip jigs--a graceful dance in 9/8 time/ a compound meter counted in three groups of three. This performance is a set of two pieces, "The Butterfly" and "Fig for a Kiss," performed on fiddle and guitar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOpzuFD1Uno
Hornpipe--a dance in four, with a bouncing rhythm. This example is played on button accordion with guitar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKw3br3s7tw
Polka--a fast dance, originally from Poland and Germany--This example is two polkas played on fiddle, accordion, four-string banjo, and the bodhran (frame drum). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWgPiSKh7kU
Irish Dances
Two types of dances have been common in Ireland. The best known in recent years to outsiders is step dancing, done either solo in groups. The style emphasizes fast footwork, with the arms kept strictly at one's side.
Here is an example for 1963, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYvU7oBBgKA
Here is a contemporary example of an old style https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6xH5aY9rsQ
Irish step dance hit the world stage with the dazzling success of Riverdance, a dramatic fusion of many elements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgGAzBDE454
Ceili (pronounced kaylee) dancing is social dancing for groups. A ceili is a dance gathering.
Jig-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fa0h_ieKeU
Since the late 1600s, England's grip on Ireland tightened with King William of Orange settling Scottish Presbyterian Protestants in Northern Ireland to help control the majority Catholic population. Various rebellions occurred before the 20th Century, with the most serious being in 1798--violently put down. At the beginning of the 20th Century, there was agitation for home rule in Ireland with political parties of varying radicalism, with the most extreme being Sinn Fein. In 1916 England was deeply involved in World War I, with approximately 210,000 Irishmen joined up and served in the British forces during the war. This created mixed feelings for many Irish people, particularly for those with nationalist sympathies. While they broadly supported the British war effort, they also felt that one of the moral justifications for the war, "the freedom of small nations" like Belgium and Serbia, should also be applied to Ireland, which at that time was under British rule.
In 1916, Irish nationalists led by James Connolly and Patrick Pearse decided to take advantage of the fact that Britain was pre-occupied by the war and stage a rebellion. In what became known as the Easter Rising, the rebels seized some of the major buildings in Dublin including the General Post Office.
The rebellion was quickly put down by British forces, but the rebellion and the execution of the leaders that followed, marked a turning point for many Irish people. Some had opposed the action of the rebels, but the public revulsion at the executions added to the growing sense of alienation from the British Government (Wikipedia).
A song called “Foggy Dew” was written by Canon Charles O’Neill of Portglenone, County Antrim (1887–1963), a parish priest of Kilcoo and later Newcastle, County Down, sometime after 1919.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe8zF_ZEAts
Canon O'Neill was reflecting this sense of alienation when he wrote "The Foggy Dew". In 1919, he attended the first sitting of the new Irish Parliament, known as the Dail. The names of the elected members were called out, but many were absent. Their names were answered by the reply "faoi ghlas ag na Gaill" which means "locked up by the foreigner".
It had a profound effect on O'Neill and some time after this he wrote "The Foggy Dew". The song tells the story of the Easter Rising but more importantly, it tries to reflect the thoughts of many Irish nationalists at the time who had come to believe that the Irishmen who fought for Britain during the war should have stayed home and fought for Irish independence instead.
O'Neill sums up this feeling in the lines: "‘Twas far better to die ‘neath an Irish sky, Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar." (Wikipedia)
Tension between Protestant and Catholic continued in Northen Ireland, which chose to stay as part of the United Kingdom. The Catholic minority felt oppressed, and in 1968 violence broke out between the communities, fed by the Irish Republican Army on the Catholic side, and various Protestant militias. Acts of terrorism occurred on both sides, with the IRA in particular engaging in dramatic violence, including shooting, and bombings In addition, various gestures served to keep the tensions. One the notable examples are Protestant fife and drum groups known as Blood and Thunder bands. The style is clearly meant as stylized aggression and representative of Protestant identity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7eK-I7BiaY
Peace activist and folk singer Tommy Sands refers to those drums in his song, "The Music of Healing."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3_DfZZk03w
The 1998 Good Friday Agreements between most of the political parties ended most of the violence, although there have been sporadic incidents, and hard feelings remain even after twenty years.