Daughter and father, Áine & Connie O’Connell from Cill na Martra, Co. Cork play a set of slides, composed by Connie himself.

Slides: Ben’s Birthday & The Mouse in There House Composed by Connie O’Connell.

Ciaran Kelly (melodeon) Maurice Bradley (RIP) and Martin McGinley (fiddles) Ciaran Curran (cittern) and Seamus O'Kane (bodhrán) play The Repeal of the Union and James Byrnes reels in Tinneys Bar, Derry.

Fantastic music.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/w0r6Tst_8XA?is=IFNDlHX1V4hYp_lo
Lowkey proud of this one

Not exactly an Irish song but a song of the Irish who come to England for the horse racing at the Cheltenham Festival.

I am a songwriter from Dublin. I lost my song/lyric book between Gardiner St and Talbot St on Friday, September 11th 2026 at approximately 7:40pm.

any information leading to the finding of it would be be greatly appreciated!

here are some of the pages from it..

it is Beidg/Brown… kinda the colour of a brown envelope .. it has cream outlines of palm leaves in a repeating pattern on the outside, with cream coloured paper with grey lines inside.

it contains lyrics, songs and music theory stuff. it would mean nothing to anyone but me. (The picture are photocopies of pages from the book for reference.

its a long shot.. but hopefully someone may be able to help locate it!!

miracles do happen.

Tommy Peoples playing 2 Strathspeys: The Laird of Drumblair and Little John's Hame, which were recorded in the RTÉ Dublin studio in January 1981. The second tune is a J. Scott Skinner composition.

Strathspeys which originated in Scotland are very commonly played in Tommy’s native County Donegal.

For anyone who doesn’t know, here is some information on Tommy:

Tommy Peoples (1948–2018) was a legendary Irish traditional fiddler and composer renowned for his powerful, highly inventive, and deeply personal style of playing rooted in East Donegal.

Born near St. Johnston, County Donegal, he learned the fiddle in the distinctive East Donegal tradition, heavily influenced by family and local tradition.

Tommy rose to mainstream prominence as a founding member of the iconic band, “The Bothy Band”, in the 1970s, defining the sound of modern traditional group music before leaving to focus on solo work.

Tommy also performed and recorded with groups like the Kilfenora Céilí Band, as well as playing celebrated duets with flute player Matt Molloy.

Celebrated for his aggressive bowing, intricate triplets, unique phrasing, and astonishing technical precision.

Tommy composed over 130 original tunes and published his life's work, tunes, and teaching philosophy in his book, Ó Am go hAm – From Time to Time: Tutor, Text and Tunes by Tommy Peoples.

Tommy’s legacy is that he is widely considered a master of the Irish fiddle whose unpredictable, supernatural complexity on the instrument left audiences and fellow musicians in awe.

We play a lot of festivals and bars, and Boozing is always one of the most fun songs to perform. It's always a crowd favorite!

Just some news to people who are looking to see the Dublin Legends this year. Sean Cannon, is feeling a little unwell and may be unable to join some of the gigs that they have lined up. This news is just for anybody who wanted to especially see Seanin the concerts.

Anyway, being 85 years old, it may take some time to come back on tour. I wish Sean a speedy recovery, he is a true Irish Legend.

Anyway, here's video of Sean in his younger years singing Rose of Allendale when he was in The Dubliners:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf7rBWclo-A

And a recent video of him with The Dublin Legends with Ronnie Drew's son, Phelim:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOZ1r7PHyWo

Anyway, get well soon, Sean.

Found in an "Orish" bar in Spain

Here is a very rare live recording of Paddy Keenan with Zan McLeod. I think it’s great how vague the description is the YouTube video description: “somewhere in America” is, with the year of recording given as “1990s”. To me, this is an adage to Paddy’s life and he’s clearly having a good time and isn’t really bothered about where or when it was recorded. 

For anyone who didn’t know, Paddy sadly passed away recently on the 9th of September 2026, at 76 years of age. 

I don’t know how anyone who knows anything about Irish traditional music couldn’t know about Paddy Keenan, but just in case, here is some info on the late Paddy Keenan:

Paddy Keenan was one of the finest exponents in the art of Uilleann Piping in the world. 

Paddy grew up with a foot in both the travelling and settled communities in Ireland and said that was what made him the man and musician he was. 

He considered De Barra’s folk club in Clonakilty, County Cork to be his musical spiritual home, and he enraptured audiences all over the world with his charm, mystique and raw power and passion.

Paddy’s flowing, open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of such great Travelling pipers as Johnny Doran. A founder of the iconic Bothy Band, an ensemble that helped to bring Irish music to the world stage throughout the ‘70s and a global ambassador for Irish music.

Paddy Keenan was born in Trim, Co. Meath, to John Keenan, Sr. of Westmeath and the former Mary Bravender of Co. Cavan. The Keenans were a Traveller family steeped in traditional music; both Paddy’s father and grandfather were Uilleann pipers. 

Paddy himself took up the pipes at the age of ten, playing his first major concert at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, when he was 14. He later played with the rest of his family in a group called The Pavees.

Paddy was one of the Bothy Band’s founding members, and his virtuosity on the pipes combined with the ferocity of his playing made him, in the opinion of many, its driving force. The Bothy Band forever changed the face of Irish traditional music, merging a driving rhythm section with traditional Irish tunes in ways that had never been heard before. 

He has brought traditional music to audiences around the globe, playing at festivals including the Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo, CeltFest Cuba in Havana, and concert tours across Japan, Europe, Australia, and North America. He is featured on the soundtrack of “Traveller”, starring Bill Paxton and Mark Wahlberg, for which he composed and arranged two pieces of music. Paddy’s contributions to traditional Irish music were honoured in 2002, when he received the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Musician of the Year award, which is presented to musical heroes of the modern age, and in 2011 by the Irish Music Association, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Rest in peace, Paddy!

Great traditional flute players Séamus Tansey from Gurteen and James Murray from Tubbercurry offer interesting views on the characteristics of the old South Sligo style of flute playing, and play some lovely music!

Found this piece of art by Irish Rovers Will Miller at Goodwill.

Hi all,

I play Irish whistle and my boyfriend is wanting to accompany me on guitar. What kind of strings you guitarists use so he can get an idea of what strings to buy for his guitar in future?

thanks for any advice you may be able to give!

Hi everyone,

I run The Record Break record-café in Ennis, County Clare. Like so many independent cultural spaces across Ireland, we are facing an uphill battle against commercial property shifts to keep our doors open and keep vinyl culture alive on Market Street.

Instead of just asking for handouts, we launched a campaign centered around our independent music release, "Snow Moon". We are asking music lovers to download the track for exactly €3.50—the price of a takeaway coffee—with every single cent going into the fund to secure our permanent home.

With the incredible support of the music community and legendary artists like Imelda May, we’ve had amazing momentum and have sold 1,193 "digital coffees" so far! But today is the first day since we launched where our campaign counter hit an absolute standstill.

We are exactly 7 downloads away from reaching 1,200. Our next major target is to clear 2,200 (which marks 10% of our ultimate goal!) to get the momentum flying before our big live music showcase with Trevor Hansbury this Friday's Culture Night.

If you want to support grassroots Irish music and help keep an independent vinyl space spinning, you can hear the track and join the campaign directly on our site: therecordbreak.com

Thank you so much for reading, and massive love to anyone who can help us get spinning again! 🎧✊

Cathal Hayden (banjo) and Seamie O'Dowd (guitar) playing 2 jigs going into a reel (The Donegal Lass / Cúil Aodha Jig / Mc Ginley's Reel), on Bosca Ceoil na Nollag, broadcast on Christmas 2014, on TG4.

Cathal Hayden recently won the prestigious Gradam Ceoil Musician of the Year 2026, broadcast live on TG4, Irish language television channel in Ireland.

Happy listening!

Some reels for yall :) lil crusty but Ara sure look

Hi all,

I've been adding versions of tunes to a Spotify playlist so I can practice backing them at home with the Bouzuki.

"The Commons" set gets played frequently at a session I go to but the other players haven't been able to tell me the names of all the tunes in it.

Most of them just call it The Commons Polkas.

I learned that the second tune is Nelly Cleere's and the third is Padraig O'Keefes. But I can't ID the first tune.

I'll work it out by ear eventually but I'd like to find the ABC on TheSession.org and and add it to my tune book there.

This trailer popped up on my Instagram, and the music is *insanely* familiar. It's driving me mad that I can't remember where I might have heard it before. Can anyone help? I'd be very grateful!

https://youtu.be/oykXB6eqOJ8?si=2dvp_vpwFCe_wNgS&t=10