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*Migration Histories > Irish > Origins
* Music 
 
The National Sound Archive, which is part of the British Library, also holds some tape recordings discussing folk music and traditions.

The music handed down from the singers and players of one generation to those of the next, and heard at the fireside, at the crossroads, and at fairs, constitutes one of the finest and most varied stores of folk music produced by any nation. It consists of love songs, laments, lullabies, occupational songs, humorous, drinking and martial songs, and a wealth of dance music.
Traditional music in the countryside was badly affected by the decline in Irish-speaking but, by the mid-19th-century, private collectors were trying to preserve it. Thomas Moore's anglicised Irish Melodies brought Irish folk music to a wider audience. In Ireland and in the Irish communities of English cities, such as Manchester Irish street ballads - narrative and political - were printed as broadsheets and sold for a penny. Patriotic songs became popular, as did *Orange ballads in the north.

Dublin's first Irish music festival, or Feis Ceoil, was held in 1897 but despite a competition of harp music, there were no entries - 'the harp had become virtually extinct' (Fleischmann). The same year, an annual Gaelic cultural festival, An tOireachtas, was launched by the Gaelic League, and 1898 saw the formation of the Cork Piper's Club, soon to be joined by others, to promote the playing of the *piob mor or war pipes. In Northern Ireland, the first fife and drum band was formed in 1882.

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Creators: Aidan Lawes

 
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