Music and History

Music on the Blasket Islands

A music group playing traditional instruments on the Blasket Islands. Drawing painted by Mrs. Waddicor and inscribed by C.H. Jackson.

Courtesy of the National Folklore Collection

Music on the Blasket Islands
Courtesy of the National Folklore Collection

Music on the Blasket Islands

A music group playing traditional instruments on the Blasket Islands. Drawing painted by Mrs. Waddicor and inscribed by C.H. Jackson.

Courtesy of the National Folklore Collection

Enlarge image

Significant events in Irish history combine to form a national character or identity. The Irish experience of suppression as a colony of Britain for many centuries, collective suffering through famine, poverty and emigration particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and eventual sovereignty as a nation has combined to form what can be identified as national character. This in turn is reflected in how tradition bearers approach traditional music, the composition of song, how they are performed and more generally the overall relationship with music. Deeply ingrained in the Irish psyche, it has been argued that music and song is an older and deeper form of communication than spoken language. This question of identity is not simply a national one, but also regional.

In Ireland, as elsewhere, certain instruments and repertoires are traditionally associated with particular regions, each one taking particular pride in their own particular identity. However, it appears that musical identity has remained stronger in Ireland than in many other western cultures perhaps due to both its geographical isolation on the western edge of Europe and its later economic and infrastructural development as a nation.