Irish Seisiún Newsletter
This Week’s Session 2
Today’s session at Tim Finnegans in Delray Beach was a good one but short as the venue was packed for the World Cup starting today at 3 p.m.
In attendance were Grace (keyboard), Fran, Seamus, and Bob (violins), Rosemarie (flute and whistle), and Randy (myself on bouzouki).
The tunes included Calliope House The Black Rogue, and The Rambling Pitchfork; Haunted House, My Darling Asleep, and The Old Favourite; Charlie Harris’ Polka, Finnish Polka, and Jessica’s; Drag Her ‘Round the Road and Reel with a Burl; The New Mown Meadow, Devaney’s Goat, The Galway Rambler, and London Lasses; Miss Thornton’s and My Love is in America; Brosna Slide, O’Keefe’s Slide, and Dennis Murphy’s Slide; The Mossy Banks, and the Mountain Top; Sally Gardens, and Sligo Maid; Father Kelly’s #1, Father Kelly’s #2, and Redigan’s; The Mist Covered Mountain, Maid in the Meadow, and Rose in the Heather; Silver Spear, The Red-Haired Lass, and Cooley’s; Concertina Reel.
Busy day at the pub but we are always grateful to have a welcome by our wonderful hosts, Noel and Lisa Walsh, pub owners and all-around great company.
Many thanks,
Randy
.Tommy Mac here.
There were no photos from the session, but some of the YOUNGER players went out and played their own version of the World Cup.
I think that’s Bob Murphy on the left.
The game was greatly delayed due to the fact that most players had to take a bathroom break every ten minutes.
Find out what’s happening at Tim Finnegan’s this month.
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Click here to view calendar
Click event below to view
Spider Cherry composes music that connects many genres from rock to funk to dance to theatre. As both front man and pianist, Nathan combines a powerful soul/rock voice with an effortlessly slick playing style
Finnegan’s supports us…Let’s support them!
Click either link to visit the site
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“That’s How I Spell Ireland”
Saturdays at 7 to 8 PM EST.
You can listen on 88.7FM or WRHU.org.
For a request please text me on 917 699-4768.Kevin and Joan Westley
Note: Show will be preempted whenever the NY Islanders have a Saturday game
Old Ireland
I don’t know where or when in Ireland, but isn’t this a great photo?
And why didn’t anyone smile in these old photos???
The guy second from the left, first row looks like he’s had his fill and couldn’t stand by himself!
Anybody got any idea what type of cart that is?
Recent Mail
Travel in Ireland
FAVOURITE PLACES IN IRELAND
Baltimore, County Cork. (See it on a map here.)
Baltimore is a beautiful seaside town in west Cork where we have personally spent a lot of time. We’ll probably make a visit again this summer!
Here are some of the surnames associated with the area in this article from a previous trip.
My own Collins family were prevalent in the area and connected to the boat building on the pier.
View this birds-eye view video to transport you to this special place, and have a listen to this fiddler performance from 2024’s Baltimore Fiddler Fair.
Irish Language
Tír gan Teanga, Tír gan Anam:
A land without a language is a land without a soul.
Submitted by our own
Anita
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SIn e inniu. Bain sult as an cluiche! Enjoy the game!
Free Irish Classes
The classes are over zoom and are held at 12:00 eastern time the 1 st Sunday of every month.
It is basic conversational Irish and open to learners of all ages, especially beginners.
All are invited.
Hope to see you there!
slan go foill. Le dea ghui,
Anita
click here to register
This week’s Irish Recipe
Irish chef’s toffee apple cupcake recipe
Who can resist a tempting and gooey caramel treat? This recipe from Edward Hayden will prove hard to say no to!
With a harmonious blend of sweet, sticky toffee and the tartness of fresh apples, these cupcakes offer a delightful contrast of flavors that perfectly complement each other. The toffee infuses a warm, caramel richness into each moist cake, while the apple adds a refreshing burst of fall’s bounty.
As you sink your teeth into these cupcakes, you’ll experience the comforting nostalgia of caramel apples at the fair, wrapped up in the comfort of a homemade treat. Whether you’re celebrating a special occasion or simply savoring the season, our toffee apple cupcakes are sure to become your go-to fall dessert.
As the chef Edward Hayden says himself, “A perfect treat for this time of year when a bit of indulgence is necessary.”
Irish chef Edward Hayden’s toffee apple cupcake recipe
Serves: 15-18
Ingredients:
For the muffins:
- 225g/8oz butter
- 225g/8oz caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 200g/7oz Carnation boiled caramel, available in supermarkets
- 225g/8oz self-raising flour
- 1 medium-sized cooking apple, grated
For the icing:
- 75g/3oz softened butter
- 350g/12oz icing sugar
- 75g/3oz Carnation boiled caramel, available in supermarkets
- For the garnish:
- Melted chocolate
- Chopped nuts
- Carnation boiled caramel, available in supermarkets
- Highbank Orchard apple syrup or honey
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Line muffin trays with cases.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the eggs and caramel.
- Slowly incorporate the self-raising flour into the butter and egg mixture. Gently mix in the grated apple and beat thoroughly.
- Transfer the mixture to the lined muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes until the cupcakes are cooked or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin and then invert onto a wire tray and allow to cool.
- When the cupcakes are cool, remove a small amount from the center of the cupcake and fill it with any remaining caramel from the tin using a piping bag.
- Meanwhile, begin by making the butter icing. Cream together the softened butter and caramel with the icing sugar until light and fluffy, and then pipe (using the same piping bag) on top of the cake.
- Optional: To decorate, drizzle the cupcakes with some melted or grated chocolate and some apple syrup or honey and garnish with some roughly chopped walnuts or almonds.
* Originally published on Food and Wine Ireland. Originally published in 2019 on IrishCentral updated in July 2026.
Poem of the Week
The Water Horse
by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
The picture above was AI-generated about this poem by Tommy Mac
At first it was only in her dreams
That he came and lay with her.
On the day
She was supposed to be minding the cows
In Sheep Cove (she was reading
Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop,
And cows were the last thing on her mind)
She saw the porpoises flocking out in the bay.
Her heart almost stopped.
She thought they were her cows, all of them
Fallen at once from the cliff to the water.
She thought she’d get a hammering at home
And she had jumped up in her agitation
Before she saw what the bodies were.
That was the first time he appeared to her there.
And after that
He came to her again and again.
At first his clothes seemed so strange to her:
The breastplate, the fishbone greaves and the casque,
The long gloves made from the skin of eels,
His whole style recalling
The sub-human creatures from B movies:
The Creature from Sheep Cove, or an Irish cousin of King Kong.
But when he took the helmet from his head
And his fine horse’s mane loosened on his shoulders
She saw clearly that he was a young man.
Then came the day
He laid his head on her breast.
The sea-creatures were hooting below them on the water
And the porpoises in shining troops around them.
(Later in the evening
They were seen by people out after cows on the mountain.)
And in a foreign tongue she understood
Though she could not properly make out the words,
He asked her to comb his hair
And crush with her long nails
The creatures that were pestering his head.
She did what he asked.
She was humming softly under her breath
Soothing him, when she got the fright
That stopped her heart again: seaweed and rock dillisk
Were growing among the roots of his hair.
She guessed at once what was going on
And that it was bad news. Then
When she felt the tips of his ears she knew
That not only Labhraidh Loirc in the old story
Had ears like a horse’s ears.
Yet although the cold sweat was running down her skin
She gave herself a pinch in the thigh
Or two, or three, and said nothing.
She went on combing his hair the whole time
Humming and murmuring
Lullabies and scraps of songs
To soothe him and beguile him into sleep
And then when she heard his breathing
Changing to sighs of a sleeper
She undid the strings of her apron
Gently and quickly
And she ran for it,
She made it up the cliffs in a flash
To the house of her people. At first,
All they could get from her was a streel of nonsense
About seaweed roots and horse’s ears. At length,
When her people at home had laboured to make out
The meaning of what she was saying, they knew at once
Right on the spot that it was the water horse.
They rose up and put on their clothes,
Their battle-gear and took their weapons,
And out they went as an armed patrol
To find and kill him.
Afterwards they all said she was lucky.
She was, and it was a near thing; one slip,
One step awry and he’d have swallowed her,
Right down, live and kicking, blood and bones.
Three days after the event
They might have found her liver, a couple of lungs and kidneys
Picked up around the high-tide mark.
That was the sort of beast he was.
It was true for them, she knew it.
And yet she felt the story of that day
Lie heavy on her.
She’d sit there on the cliff edge
Day after day.
And she thought about the green gleam
In the strange eyes that had looked at her with desire,
That was as simple, clean, clear
In its own way as a hearty hunger;
The rhythmic shining of his brown limbs
And how they narrowed to slim wrists
And the shape of the hands.
More than all else she remembered the muscular
Weave of his body that was tense
And light as tightened bow. The spring
Wound up, alert, constantly
Ready to be released again.
.
five. She studied English and Irish at UCC in 1969, where she became part of the ‘Innti’ school of poets. Ní Dhomhnaill lived abroad for seven years in Holland and Turkey with her Turkish husband, Dogan Leflef. Her first collection of poetry, An Dealg Droighin (1981) was published one year after her return to Co. Kerry in 1980.In her poetry, Ní Dhomhnaill uses language as a tool to liberate the marginalized in contemporary Irish society. She writes solely in Irish in a nation where Irish monoglots are non-existent, and in a subversive female narrative that challenges stereotypes of women in Ireland. By writing about women\’s power, desire, emotions, and struggles, she enables the \’real\’ woman to emerge from patriarchal stereotypes. Ní Dhomhnaill dispels traditional myths of women and instead delivers to global audiences a self-confident, multi-dimensional view of women who openly display sexuality and a multiplicity of desire. She also strives to move beyond the fragmentation that pervades Irish consciousness as a result of a repressive colonial past. Ní Dhomhnaill asserts that the whole “postcolonial thing” is no longer an excuse for Ireland’s lack of psychic energy.
Stories and Tales
Another special musical treat
Tommy Mac here……
There aren’t too many old folks left who remember the days of the thresher. This machine would go from farm to farm at harvest time in Ireland. All the farmers would get together at each other’s farm to help out, and the bacon and cabbage would feed them, and the bottles of porter didn’t hurt a bit.
And, I think it was used more for wheat and barley than it was for corn. Correct me if I’m wrong
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” The Singing Farmer ” recalling the days when the thresher played a very important role in farming during the corn harvest.
Thanks to Leslie Magowan for the use of 35x tractor for the song, and his next-door neighbour Seamus Cassley for setting up the location.
The threshing scenes were filmed outside the town of Ballycastle on the North Antrim coast
Click below to view and click the speaker for sound
When done, click “back arrow” to return here.
Céad Míle Fáilte, and welcome to your Letter from Ireland for this week.
We’re still experiencing a heatwave here in Ireland (no complaint!) and it is one of those bright summer mornings in County Cork when the whole countryside seems ripe for harvest. How are things in your part of the world this weekend?
I have a cup of Barry’s tea by my side, and I do hope you’ll join me with a cup of whatever you fancy yourself as we start into today’s letter. Being summer, I thought we would take an imaginary road trip up the west coast of Ireland – but one with a very particular focus.
The above picture was AI-generated by Tommy Mac based on this story
Along Ireland’s Western Shore
If you’ve ever travelled along the west coast of Ireland, you’ll know that it does not go anywhere in a straight line. While the distance from the south-west of Cork to the north of Donegal may only be around 290 miles as the crow flies, if you follow the coastal roads as they twist around every bay, peninsula and headland, the route stretches to more than 1,500 miles, and with every turn of the road revealing another small wonder. Of course, much of that route has become known today as Ireland’s “Wild Atlantic Way”.
One of the wonders you encounter along the way are graveyards in the most scenic of positions. All along the western coast you come upon little burial grounds in the most beautiful and improbable places, above beaches, beside ruined churches, out on headlands with nothing beyond them but the sky, the islands and the wild Atlantic Ocean itself.
My own grandmother and grandfather were laid to rest in one of these graveyards, in a lovely spot just above the village of Schull, Co Cork and it’s no hardship to visit their resting place on any sunny day. You could sit on the wall there for an hour, looking out across Schull harbour and out to Roaringwater Bay, and almost forget what brought you in the first place.
But I remember a day I visited many years ago, when I first began to wonder why it should be here, of all places, that so many of our coastal communities chose to lay their dead, right down to the very edge of the water. It turned out that there is no single answer. Every graveyard has its own story, but some of the reasons reach far back into the history of life along the western edge of Ireland.
The Holy Ones Arrived First
Part of the answer begins with the saints. Some of Ireland’s early holy men and women deliberately sought out the wild edges of the land, the remote headlands, peninsulas and the islands scattered out into the Atlantic. To them, the ocean was a kind of desert, offering the same solitude that monks in foreign lands had gone looking for among sand and rock. They built small churches and places of prayer in spots that must have seemed at the very end of the world.
Wherever a holy site became established, burials tended to follow, as people wanted to be laid near sacred ground. Once a few generations of a community were resting there, the place took on a pull of its own – a chain migration for the dead if you please. So, while the saint may have chosen it for the solitude, those who came after stayed because their own people were already there.
Once upon a Time, When the Sea Was the Road
There was another reason too, and a more practical one. Today we tend to think of the sea as the place where the road runs out, but for many of our coastal communities in earlier centuries it was the very opposite. The sea, lakes and rivers were the road.
Before there were bridges and surfaced roadways, travelling overland through the west of Ireland could be slow and hard going. A village only a few miles across a bay might mean a long day’s journey around mountains and bogs with the deep indents of the coast, whereas a boat could carry you there directly. In some coastal parishes the priest himself came by water to say Mass and to christen, marry and bury. For example, on Inishark island, off the Galway coast, the islanders would row across to neighbouring Inishbofin island to collect the priest and bring him home for Mass.
So a church or graveyard beside a landing place (notice that there is often a nearby beach) was not always sitting at the edge of its community at all. As often as not, it was sitting beside its main road – the sea. We look at these places today and see only how remote they are, when the people who chose them may have seen the very opposite, not a parish divided by the sea, but one that the sea held together in a very practical manner.
The Church Moved, but the Dead Stayed
Over time, in many places, the world around the graveyard changed. The old church fell into ruin, while a new one was built closer to the village or the new road. In time the boats gave way to bridges, easier land access and eventually motor cars. But the graveyard stayed where it was. By then whole generations of local families were already lying in it, and people wanted to rest beside their parents and grandparents. Buildings can be moved and roads can be rerouted, but the dead are rarely lifted and carried elsewhere, and so the burial ground stayed on at the edge of the sea, long after the reasons for first putting it there had faded from everyone’s memory.
I thought of all this the last time I sat on the wall above Schull, with my grandparents just below me and Roaringwater Bay spread beyond. It came to me that these coastal graveyards are not really about death at all. Whatever it was that first fixed them there, whether a saint’s church, a landing place, or the slow pull of generations already buried, they have become places that are worth coming back to visit. A grandchild, or a great-grandchild can come home from Canada, England, Australia or America, sit for a while with a hand on an old stone, and look out on the very same sea their ancestor once knew.
While we did not lay our dead in a beautiful location beside the Atlantic so that their descendants would one day return to them from the far side of the world, it has turned out to be one of the gifts of these places all the same. They keep the dead somewhere we still want to visit.
If you have Irish ancestors resting in one of these coastal places, I do hope you have had a chance to visit or you get to stand there one day, with the wind in your face blowing in from the Atlantic.
So, let me leave you with one question this week: Do you know where your ancestors are buried in Ireland? Are any in one of the type of graveyard I have just described?
Slán for now and chat week,
Mike.
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Submitted by Lawrence Mahoney
Bridie Landers and the filming of “Moby Dick” in Youghal
IrishCentral Contributor recalls meeting Bridie Landers, one of the Youghal natives who served as an extra in the 1954 fillm “Moby Dick.”
When John Huston set out to film “Moby Dick” in 1954, he found that New Bedford, Massachusetts, no longer resembled the whaling community Herman Melville so vividly described.
Searching for a more suitable location, he chose Youghal in County Cork.
Youghal was certainly no stranger to visitors. Beacons of light, flamed by nuns from St. Ann’s Convent, safely guided Norse traders and, by mischance, sea-pirates into the port during the 9th century. Oliver Cromwell, fresh from massacres in Drogheda and Wexford, wintered in Youghal in 1649, turning the town’s Catholic church into a horse stable.
Sir Walter Raleigh became mayor of Youghal in 1588-89. At his residence in Myrtle Grove, he reputedly lit the first pipe of tobacco in Europe. His country maid, believing His Lordship was going up in smoke, doused him thoroughly with a bucket of cold water. George the Third built a four-story Clock Tower in 1776 to house local offenders of the Penal Laws. By 1785, it was so crowded, the jail keeper had to move out.
But for a few glorious weeks in the summer of 1954, the 5,000 residents of Youghal forgot their beleaguered past with foreigners, and opened their doors to such movie stars as Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Noel Purcell and Orson Welles, who filled the shops, pubs and a multitude of rooms at the Adelphi Hotel. Paddy Linehan’s pub hit a gusher that July, going from six to 32 barrels of stout sold a week.
In 1994, I had the pleasure of meeting Bridie Landers, a native of Youghal who was chosen as one of the many extras for the movie.
“It was like heaven on earth,” said the animated 84-year-old at the time, taking out a scrapbook and pointing to a picture of herself in a brown bonnet and period costume. “We thought we were on the pig’s back with the splash of money that came into town. I was paid 12 shillings sixpence a day for two days. Fair money. But, sure, all good things come to an end.
“Wasn’t it grand all the same,” she continued, her face animated in a flush of freckles. “The movie people covered the shopfronts with old clapboard, outfitted ourselves in shawls and dresses, and lined the quay with oaken barrels. Then there were sailor’s sea-shanties in the pubs, lovely songs, they were, and the unfurling of sails on the tall ships. I even managed to touch Gregory Peck’s wooden leg,” she devilishly added.
“But you could hardly call what I did to be acting,” she went on. “Like the other women, I had to pretend I was waving farewell to my husband, off on a three-year whaling voyage. So there I stood on the quay, waving with the rest of them, but not really waving to anybody at all, for I was already a widow these many years.”
In 1933, Bridie had married Dan Landers, a wounded veteran home from France following the First World War, one of 300,000 Irishmen who fought for Britain in hopes of being granted their own country’s independence after the war. Though shrapnel had been removed from his thigh, “a goodly amount remained,” said Bridie, “which poisoned his system and left him unable to work.”
Shortly before the outbreak of World War Two, the Landers received an eviction notice on their home at Sarsfield Terrace. Despondent, Bridie decided to save their home by seeking work in England, thus leaving Dan behind with their two children, Catherine, 6, and Donald, 4. For 10 years, Bridie worked in an ammunition factory outside Reading, relieved by only a few short visits home during that stretch.
At the war’s conclusion, the factory began to manufacture ballpoint pens. “Our pens were the first ballpoints in the world,” she shared proudly. “In fact, General Montgomery signed important war documents with the first of them.”
Sadly, three weeks after Bridie’s triumphant return to Youghal after rescuing their home, Dan Landers died of lead poisoning.
Bridie and her son, Donald, emigrated to my hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1958, after she had answered an ad in the Irish Independent to become a housekeeper at a local Catholic church. Her daughter, Catherine, remained in Youghal with her family in the house that Bridie had saved.
Shortly after I had met Bridie, I took her to Arrowhead in Pittsfield, the farmhouse where Herman Melville had penned his world classic in 1851. But Bridie’s only comments that day were about the large open hearth, the well-scrubbed wooden floors, and the kitchen utensils.
“Those big pots are like the ones my mother used to bake her currant cakes.”
The next evening, Bridie and I visited Nora Aherne, also a native of Youghal, to watch the video of “Moby Dick.” Bridie had only seen the movie once before at our downtown theatre, “where I passed out after seeing myself on the big screen.”
Fifteen minutes into the movie, we came upon Bridie’s quayside scene. Being the in-house projectionist, I replayed the segment several times, as Bridie and Nora tried to put names on the bonneted faces on the TV screen.
“Why, that’s Bessie Coakley behind me,” gasped Bridie. “And isn’t that Paddy Cooney’s wife? And look at the poor dear with the whiskers, a lovely little lady from Cork Hill. They were so fond of her. Oh, what was her name, a tall? And who is that Nora? Is it Josie Nunn? And look, will you, at Mary Hennessey!”
“Isn’t it strange how Bridie and I both emigrated from Youghal to Pittsfield,” added Nora, “and neither of us had a clue that ‘Moby Dick’ was written here.”
They sat back on the sofa and quietly watched as the Pequod sailed out from Youghal Bay. But it could well have been themselves on Pequod’s quarterdeck, looking back upon the dark-dressed women, the market square, the gray steeples, and the grassy headlands that surrounded their native home.
“Wasn’t it grand to be part of it, after all,” said Bridie, breaking her long silence. “Imagine me waving to the whole wide world from our little quay in Youghal.”
*Kevin O’Hara is the author of “Last of the Donkey Pilgrims: A Man’s Journey through Ireland.” Visit his website at TheDonkeyman.com
Battle of the Boyne:
Catholic troops were “dead drunk,” firsthand account reveals
During the Battle of the Boyne, most of the Catholic troops “were left dead drunk scattered about the fields,” according to a letter penned by Captain John Stevens.
At the Battle of the Boyne, Catholic troops were “dead drunk,” at least according to an eyewitness account that was auctioned in June 2010.
The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was a pivotal event in Irish history, in which the Catholic King James and his Irish troops were routed by William of Orange.
The battle took place near the town of Drogheda and has since become the rallying point for millions of Northern Irish Protestants, who commemorate it every year on July 12.
The Battle of the Boyne was fought between the troops of the English King James II and the Dutch Prince William of Orange, who, with his wife, Mary II, had overthrown James in England in 1688. It resulted in a victory for William.
The memoirs of Captain John Stevens give a handwritten personal account of James’ Catholic troops. Stevens wrote that they “drank so extravagantly” that they were left “dead drunk scattered about the fields” on the morning of the Battle of the Boyne.
The Battle of the Boyne (Getty Images)
He says the soldiers made the fatal mistake in a mix-up over drink rations. He wrote that a consignment of brandy, ordered to fortify the men on the eve of battle, did not arrive until the famous kings were drawing swords.
Stevens wrote the 3,000-word account after taking part in the battle himself. He is also harshly critical of Jacobite commanders who fled the field in front of their men.
In June 2010, Stevens’ account sold for £43,200 (US$ 51,600) at Bonhams of London.
In his account of the Battle of the Boyne, Stevens wrote: “No General Officer above a Brigadier was seen among us, & which is very rare, among us no word was given. Nor is it to be forgot that his Ma.ty having appointed brandy to be distributed to each regiment, that each man might receive his proportion in order to cheare them for the fatigue of the day, it was never delivered till we were marching when the souldiers quitting their ranks for greediness of the liquor, not having time to stay beat out the heads of the hogheads & dipped into them the kettles they had to boile their meat, & drank so extravagantly that I am sure above 1000 men were thereby tendered unfit for service, & most were left dead drunk scattered about the fields.”
However, Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, Drew Nelson, said that it was imperative that historians question if Stevens was trying to make excuses as to why they lost the battle. He also said it was up to the officers in charge to regulate how much alcohol the men were allowed to consume.
“Notwithstanding, this was a fantastic price and demonstrates the interest in artifacts from this period. Several years ago, the order bought a letter for $6,052, which was written by King William several days before the battle,” said Nelson.
*Originally published in 2016. Updated in July 2026.
The history and origins of traditional Irish music
Irish traditional music can be traced back thousands of years.
Ireland may produce big names who tour the world, but we also know how to keep in touch with our traditions. Here’s a look at the history and origins of Irish music.
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (the Music Festival of Ireland), the world’s largest traditional Irish music celebration, still draws over 400,000 attendees each year, with dozens of nationalities arriving in Ireland to celebrate our 2,000-year-old traditions.
We know that once a tin whistle is pulled out of the handbag, it’s going to end with a good night, but where did it all start?
Irish traditional music began as an oral tradition, passed on from generation to generation by listening, learning by ear, and without formally writing the tunes on paper. This practice is still encouraged today, and students of traditional music are encouraged to pick up tunes they hear from others or learn as they listen. Many formal classes will provide music notes for students, and books do print tunes on a traditional music stave; however.
The traditional music played by the Irish came to the country with the Celts 2,000 years ago. The Celts were influenced by Eastern music, and it’s believed that the traditional Irish harp may have originated in Egypt.
The harp was the most popular instrument in ancient times, with harpists employed to play for chieftains and to create music for nobles. This was until the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when native Irish chieftains fled the land under threat from invaders. With their patrons’ flight to mainland Europe, the harpists were left to travel the country and play wherever they could.
It wasn’t until 1762 that tunes were officially written down for the first time and collectors began to travel the country compiling music that can still be viewed today. The tradition of collecting our music continues today at the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, the world’s largest collection of traditional and folk music.
As can be seen at events such as Fleadh Cheoil, traditional music has traveled far beyond the 32 counties of Ireland. Our music has traveled all over the world thanks to our long history of emigration. It was during the famine that vast numbers of Irish people moved to the States, bringing their music with them.
Traditional music saw a revival, especially in the States, in the 1920s, when recordings were made for the first time and made available to the Irish living abroad. The fiddle player Michael Coleman was one such player whose recordings in New York were to influence fiddle players in the States and in Ireland for many years to come.
The style of music was thrown open to a wider audience still due to the influence of Sean Ó Riada. Ó Riada established the traditional music ensemble Ceoltóirí Chulainn, which was heavily influenced by classical music forms. The group began arranging traditional music, something that had previously been unheard of. The influence of Ó Riada can still be seen in the creative grúpa ceoil (music group) competition at the Fleadh Cheoil.
In recent years, traditional music has been used in collaboration with European and American music during what is known as the Golden Age of traditional music. Groups such as Planxty and De Dannan led the way. There has also been considerable Celtic fusion with other popular music styles. Artists ranging from Sinéad O’Connor and Flook to Daithí and Dropkick Murphys use traditional elements throughout their music.
The main traditional instruments are the fiddle, Irish flute, tin whistle, Celtic harp, uilleann pipes, and bodhrán. The fiddle is the same instrument as the violin, but it is through the style of playing that we differentiate between them. The fiddle player sees less conformity in the way in which the instrument is held, and a traditional musician is free to experiment with more musical ornamentation. This is true of each traditional player, whatever the instrument. Traditional Irish music is highly ornamented by the individual, and it would be hard to meet two players who play the same tune the same way.
Visit IrishCentral’s dedicated music section here or our Irish language section here to read more.
* Originally published in March 2015, updated in July 2026.
WATCH:
Irish trad session in NYC’s legendary Paddy Reilly’s
more than 30 years ago
1998 footage from Paddy Reilly’s in New York City shows why their Thursday night trad sessions meant so much to the Irish community living in America.
Walking into Paddy Reilly’s bar on a Thursday evening in 1988, you would be forgiven for mistaking it for a watering hole in Ireland, instead, this popular Irish bar was located in the heart of New York City.
Paddy Reilly’s, on the corner of 28th and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, was featured in a St. Patrick’s Day special on the RTÉ program “Evening Extra” with presenter Shay Healy in 1988.
The New York Irish pub’s Thursday night traditional music sessions were very popular with Irish ex-pats, who tell Healy how much culture and tradition mean to you when you emigrate.
“It gave me something I missed from home,” one attendee told Healy.
“It has good sessions here, the craic is good and you meet a lot of people…It’s good fun but I think they’re also hanging on to their own traditions, and hanging on to what Ireland means to them because when you come away from home your traditions mean a lot.”
In the 1988 segment, Healy talked to the bar’s manager, Stevie Duggan, a well-known Gaelic footballer who had been in New York for four and a half years. The traditional music sessions were his idea, as he had some very good musician friends from Co Kerry and Co Mayo.
They started three months prior and had “become one of the best seisiúns in the United States.”
Duggan explained that they advertised the sessions in The Irish Echo and Irish Voice (IrishCentral’s sister publication) newspapers, and that they had gotten visitors from all over New York arriving at the pub on a Thursday night.
“People realize here [in New York] that they’re mixed with so many different cultures that their own culture becomes prominent in their own minds, and then they grasp on to the Irish music… they realize that this is our identity,” said one young Irish man.
* Originally published in 2022, updated in July 2026.
News From Ireland
“Historical erasure” –
Irish American org condemns Bessborough development plans
The Ancient Order of Hibernians is calling for the immediate preservation of the site of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Co Cork.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), the oldest and largest Irish American Catholic organization in the US, has formally condemned the decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála, Ireland’s independent planning commission, to permit residential development on the grounds of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Blackrock, Co Cork.
The AOH said in a statement on Friday, July 10, that it maintains that any construction on the site prior to a full, independent forensic investigation is a “failure of due diligence and an active erasure of historical memory.”
The AOH said it has issued an urgent appeal to Irish authorities, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Ireland’s Ambassador to the US Geraldine Byrne Nason, all Irish Consulates, and the leaders of all Irish political parties, demanding an immediate halt to development.
“An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, particularly when the Commission itself acknowledges that the historical record is incomplete,” said Sean Pender, National President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
“To use that uncertainty as justification for irreversible development turns a failure to conduct a proper forensic investigation into the justification for proceeding.
“We cannot escape the painful conclusion that these children are once again being buried in undignified anonymity so that a shameful chapter of Ireland’s history can be buried with them under the foundations of a housing complex.”
Read more
The Bessborough site is the final resting place of 859 children who remain unaccounted for. The AOH asserts that for many Americans of Irish descent whose personal and family stories are intertwined with these institutions, the site is not an abstraction; it is a place demanding the same respect accorded to any ancestral burial ground.
The AOH says it is calling for the immediate preservation of the Bessborough grounds as a permanent memorial. The organization has pledged to continue “its advocacy to ensure the dead are given the dignity they were denied in life, framing this not merely as an Irish obligation, but as a standard of common humanity.”
Reflecting on the Irish-US relationship
as America marks its semiquincentennial
Does Irish-America continue to have the capacity to mobilize the US in support of Northern Ireland?
*Editor’s Note: The following essay was written by BC Irish Institute Director Professor Mary C. Murphy as part of the Irish Institute of Boston College’s guest essay series.
As America250 celebrations kick off, the semiquincentennial anniversary offers an opportunity to reflect on today’s relationship between the US and Ireland, north and south.
Having been central to the achievement of peace in Northern Ireland, what role now for the United States in supporting Northern Ireland as it grapples with complex challenges, strained political relations and calls (by some) for constitutional change?
America 250 and Ireland
Ireland’s relationship with the US is older than the United States itself. Among the first Irish emigrants to arrive in the US in the late 1600s were Ulster Presbyterians many of whom were originally Scottish and had moved to Northern Ireland before leaving for America. Having arrived initially in New Hampshire, they fanned across the US and assimilated into American life.
In the mid-1800s, those early emigrants were followed by over two million largely Irish Catholics fleeing the hunger and devastation of the Irish famine (1845-1852). With the passage of time, this large influx of Irish emigrants and their descendants would come to have considerable influence on American demographics, politics, economics and religion.
Over the decades that followed, the newly arrived emigrants from Ireland maintained strong economic, cultural and political links with their homeland. These connections were instrumental in the creation of a strong, mobilized and vibrant Irish-American community. That same community played an important role in fostering US interest in Ireland.
In 1924, America was the first country in the world to formally recognize the newly independent Irish state. More recently, the United States played a significant supporting role in helping Northern Ireland to steer away from violent conflict towards a durable peace agreement with the signing of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.
As the US marks America250, what does Irish-America look like today? And does it continue to have the capacity to mobilize the US in support of Northern Ireland?
In today’s United States, there are factors which challenge the degree and depth of attentiveness to both Ireland and Northern Ireland. Geopolitical turmoil and conflicts in Europe and the Middle East are distracting the US from places like Northern Ireland where violence has substantially dissipated, even if the peace process remains incomplete and imperfect.
Wider issues linked to Ireland’s stance on Israel and its support for Gaza, including plans to pass the Occupied Territories Bill (which will limit trade with illegal Israeli settlements) have stoked some US opposition to Ireland.
For his part, President Trump does not appear to be especially interested in Northern Ireland. Indeed, his support for Brexit was out of kilter with majority sentiment there and unlike many of his predecessors, he has no familial connection to Ireland.
Irish-America itself is undergoing a period of change. Although there are an estimated 30 million people claiming Irish heritage in the US, their connection with Ireland is becoming more generationally distant as the number of Irish born emigrants tapers downwards. There are also fewer of them joining Irish-American organizations – almost three quarters are not members of any Irish group with younger generations less inclined to sign up.
It is notable too that the size of the Friends of Ireland caucus in the US Congress has reduced as the proportion of politicians with close links to Ireland similarly declines.
In tandem, the political reach of Irish-America is shifting. Major cities like New York and Boston are no longer bastions of Irish-American political influence. Take for example New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani who, unlike many of his Irish-American predecessors, did not explicitly target the Irish vote. Or Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, whose election in 2021 marked “a historic turn away from Irish American mayors.”
The knock-on effects of these demographic, social and political trends have consequences for the resilience and vitality of Irish-America with potential complications for how the US relates to Ireland, north and south.
However, there are also some signs of dynamism in terms of recent mobilization efforts which engage new and younger generations of Irish Americans and connect with Irish-America outside of its traditional strongholds.
The American Irish State Legislators Caucus (AISLC) is a bipartisan group of current and former American Irish state legislators from across the US (attached to state andlocal level institutions). Its creation in 2021 has helped to expand and diversify knowledge of, and support for Ireland amongst a newly mobilized political class across the US. The caucus strongly supports the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and aims to bring attention to the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary Northern Ireland.
The Ad Hoc Committee for the Protection of the Good Friday Agreement is similarly attentive to Ireland. It grew out of US efforts to support Northern Ireland during Brexit and counts senior US political and civic figures among its members. The group lobbies and has access to high level political figures in Ireland and the UK, particularly on issues related to Brexit and legacy.
Irish Studies is a recognized and resourced field of study across the US tertiary education sector. Upwards of forty US universities offer Irish Studies teaching programs and convene Irish-related public programming and events. Predominantly rooted in the disciplines of history and English, Irish Studies is seeing more incorporation of other subjects from across the arts, humanities and social sciences – not least in Boston College. Relatedly, Ireland continues to be an appealing and sought after study abroad destination with US students consistently accounting for the largest share of the international student market there.
The Irish government, particularly through its Emigrant Support Program (ESP), financially supports the Irish diaspora network in the US. Since its creation in 2004, the program has enabled networking and mobilization activities and encouraged the promotion of Irish heritage and identity. In 2025, the ESP distributed grants worth over €4 million to 145 cultural, voluntary and community organizations across the US.
Organizations like the Irish American Partnership and the Ireland Funds have diversified their memberships through the creation of Young Partners/Leaders groups which engage with young professionals across the US. These provide regular networking opportunities and promote connections to Ireland among a younger age cohort. And interestingly, it is online Irish groups which today appear to be the most common type of organization with which Irish Americans engage.
All of these factors challenge the idea that the vitality of Irish-America is waning. But to what extent do such dynamics foster enduring US engagement in Northern Ireland’s post-conflict trajectory?
It has been almost thirty years since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and ten years since the UK voted to leave the EU. The 2016 Brexit decision interrupted a fragile post-conflict settlement in Northern Ireland, bringing old border quarrels to the surface and reigniting community tensions.
In addition, Northern Ireland continues to confront residual conflict-related problems many of which are highly charged policy challenges – examples include legacy issues, segregated/integrated education, and high rates of violence against women and girls. Layered over these issues are the problems attached to the implementation of the Windsor Framework which attempts to resolve some of the difficulties associated with Brexit for Northern Ireland. When it comes to addressing many of these challenges, Northern Ireland’s community divide remains salient and troublesome.
Relatedly, there are growing concerns about the political dysfunction which is undermining Northern Ireland’s devolved power-sharing system of government. Tense and strained political relationships, structural institutional challenges, a poor record of policy delivery and declining levels of trust are prompting calls for reform of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive.
For some political parties, ambitious constitutional change in the form of a united Ireland is far more desirable than incremental adjustments to existing institutions. Unsurprisingly, unionist political parties are roundly opposed to any plans which might take Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.
In this post-Brexit period, Northern Ireland’s contemporary politics are complex, its society remains divided and its future trajectory contested.
A Continuing but Shifting Role for Irish-America
It is broadly accepted that for societies to successfully navigate post-conflict periods, they require the ongoing support of friends and allies. This is where the Irish American community can play an important and constructive role by sustaining attention to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and advocating on unresolved legacy issues; encouraging the British government to uphold its existing commitments, including those related to the Windsor Framework; and supporting economic development initiatives. Irish-America can also contribute through support for less formal channels of US engagement which share knowledge, provide opportunities for advocacy and offer quiet spaces for dialogue.
However, not withstanding a continuing role for Irish-America, it is important to acknowledge that Northern Ireland today confronts particularly sensitive challenges linked to legacy issues, community reconciliation, cultural and identity accommodation,the generational transfer of peace norms and the building of trust. In comparative peacebuilding research, this stage is often the most difficult, because it involves deep social, cultural, and political transformations. These tasks require strong local ownership and agency, and less external engineering.
Irish American engagement can offer encouragement, resources, and diplomatic support, but it cannot substitute for the difficult political choices and sustained local leadership required in today’s Northern Ireland.
In the spirit of America250, which invites reflection on how democratic societies confront conflict and build durable peace, Northern Ireland’s experience underscores the importance of dialogue, accountability, leadership and the hard work of political compromise. Friends may assist, but the responsibility for shaping Northern Ireland’s future at this juncture rests primarily with those who live and govern there.
*This essay was shared with IrishCentral by The Irish Institute of Boston College.
Dublin studio turns to crowdfunding to bring Irish period drama to life
Standard Practice Productions has launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the pilot for “The Wicklow Gatehouse,” a family saga spanning 1913 to present day Ireland.
A derelict gatehouse in Delgany, County Wicklow, becomes the thread connecting a modern-day solicitor to her family’s hidden past in the Rising, the War of Independence, and the Civil War. Now the Dublin production company behind the project is asking the public to help fund the pilot, following the same crowdfunding route that helped bring “Seeking Persephone” to screen.
Dublin film production company Standard Practice Productions has launched an Indiegogo Campaign to fund the development of their period drama “The Wicklow Gatehouse”.
The story is a saga set in two time periods – modern-day Ireland and the Ireland of 1913 before the Irish rose up against British rule. Loosely based on true stories, but with a mainly fictional basis, it chronicles the lives of an Irish family through the 1916 Rising, World War One, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.
The gatehouse, derelict in the present day, bridges the modern story with the past as the ancestor, a young solicitor finds out that her property has been featured on an Abandoned House blogger’s site leading her to discover secrets about her family’s past.
In a similar vein to “A Woman of Substance”, “Outlander” and “Poldark”, “The Wicklow Gatehouse” has twists and turns, human stories and encapsulates the beauty of Ireland and its people. The promo for Indiegogo was filmed on location in Dublin and features up-and-coming Irish actors Kyra Murphy from “Wednesday” and Kris Redmond of “The Ripper”.
The creators are Standard Practice Productions who are a Dublin production company whose debut feature, “Suit Hung. Tied Tongue.” directed by Sau Dachi has received reviews from The Guardian, The Sunday Times, RTÉ.ie, Joe.ie and Film Ireland (amongst many others), won several awards in film festivals and has been acquired by RTÉ.
Screenwriter and Producer Lucy Earley says of the series: “’The Wicklow Gatehouse’ will be in the beautiful setting of Delgany, a village in Wicklow, which is known as the Garden of Ireland. The story is a blend of interesting facts I found out about my family and fiction. I have a keen interest in genealogy and it’s amazing the information that you can find.”
“Essentially, it’s the tale of multiple love stories and the saga of a house and the family that lived there. It’s hard to get funding for period dramas, even though they’re so popular, but there’s more of an onus on contemporary dramas. So we decided that looking at the success of productions like ‘Seeking Persephone’ we could have Indiegogo as a real option to get the pilot done.”
“We’ve produced a proof-of-concept video with up-and-coming Irish actors Kyra Murphy from ‘Wednesday’ and Kris Redmond of ‘The Ripper’ that we filmed on Portmarnock Strand, and we’ve used it as our promo calling card,” Lucy adds.
“The Wicklow Gatehouse” is planned to begin filming in April 2027.
Check out the promo video for “The Wicklow Gatehouse”:
Alexis Mac Allister: Ireland’s distant link to World Cup glory
As Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister seeks to win another FIFA World Cup, many in Ireland are curious about his Irish links.
Ireland may not have made it to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but Irish fans can – albeit distantly – claim Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister as one of their own.
Mac Allister is set to line out with Argentina, alongside the famed Lionel Messi, when they take on Spain on Sunday, July 19, for the 2026 FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey.
The pro soccer player has caught Ireland’s attention for his Irish-sounding surname – and, yes, red hair.
In 2020, Mac Allister’s father Carlos clarified that their surname is indeed Irish, not Scottish.
“According to our family, we came from Ireland, rather than Scotland,” Carlos told The Athletic at the time.
“We came to Argentina, to a place called Pergamino, but that was three or four generations ago, and later my father and mother married and moved to a different place — Santa Rosa in the Province of La Pampa, which is where Alexis was born.
“Now, when we get together, they always say that our ancestors came from Ireland. I don’t know whether the ones before them were from Scotland, and went to Ireland from Scotland, and then our ancestors came here. But we say that we came from Ireland.”
Probably not surprisingly, when Mac Allister was set to take the field with Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final – which Argentina ultimately won – the hunt was on for his Irish cousins.
One of those, albeit distant, cousins was Noel Mac Allister, of Donabate in Dublin. He explained to RTÉ in 2022 how some of the family ended up in Argentina.
Noel said that in 1865 or 1866, his great-grandfather’s brother Joseph MacAllister went “all the way down to Argentina” from Dublin on sailing boats. Joseph was later joined by his two nephews, John and William, and the family settled in Peragimo, a city to the north-west of Buenos Aires, where many Irish people had already settled.
For several decades in the 20th century, the link between Ireland and Argentina was nearly nonexistent.
However, a 2002 Irish Times article traces how the connection was rekindled.
Dickie McAllister was one of a group who showed Ireland’s then-Foreign Minister Dick Spring around the Buenos Aires Hurling Club, where Dickie was secretary, in 1995.
Upon his return to Ireland, Spring wrote about his visit in The Irish Times. A man in Dublin – Frank McAllister – saw Dickie McAllister’s photo in the Irish Times and decided to write to him.
“And that’s how I found my Irish relatives,” Dickie said in 2002.
Balls.ie later reported that Frank asked Dickie if he knew anything about his family heritage, as Frank knew he had Argentinian relatives. Dickie admitted he didn’t know much about his Irish roots – but he did have a photo of where his great-great-grandfather had come from in Ireland.
The house in Dickie’s photograph was the McAllister family homestead in Donabate, Dublin, where Joseph Mac Allister had left from so many years ago.
In 2023, Balls.ie spoke with Co Meath man Philip McAllister, whose father was a cousin of Frank. Philip met and spent several months with the Argentinian McAllisters when he was traveling in Latin America in 2006.
“I knock on the door in Argentina, door opens to a whole big family of McAllisters – Dickies, and Monserrats, and Pablos, and Elaynes, and Kevins, and Michaels, and Johns – the whole lot of them.
“The older generation that were still alive, they all spoke English with a Dublin accent!
“The proof was that photo [of the house] – they had no idea. We had lost contact, they had lost contact, this was the rejoining of the family.
“I stayed there for three months hanging out with them – fabulous people.”
But back to Alexis, who, like his father, is aware of his Irish roots.
“The surname Mac Allister comes from Ireland,” the pro soccer player told the Olympics website in 2022.
In 2024, he said of his surname during an interview: “It is Irish. I don’t know why many, many people think it’s Scottish. It’s actually Irish.
“A couple of months or weeks ago, I received a letter from my family in Ireland asking me to go there one day.
“Yeah, I would love to.”
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Good night to you all….Tommy Mac
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Welcome to
Tír na mBláth
Tír na mBláth is one of hundreds of branches throughout the world of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) pronounced “kol-tus kyol-tori air-in“, the largest group involved in the preservation of Irish music, dance and song.
Our board and membership is made up of Irish, Irish descendants, and all those who support, celebrate and take pride in the preservation of Irish culture.
We also aim to promote good will and citizenship.
Interested in belonging to Tír na mBláth? Feel free to download our membership form
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Our meetings and several events are held at Tim Finnegan’s Irish Pub in Delray Beach Florida.
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