What you will hear
Irish trad instruments guide
Fiddle, tin whistle, flute, uilleann pipes and bodhran: who plays what in Irish traditional music and how a pub session works.
Reserve a table for the hooley ↗Quick answer
Irish traditional music is mostly played on the fiddle, tin whistle, flute and uilleann pipes, with the button accordion, concertina, banjo, guitar and bouzouki widely heard too. The bodhran, a frame drum, keeps the beat. Pub sessions are where much of the music lives. Which instruments play at a given hooley is the band's choice, so treat each as a possibility.
The core instruments
The most common instruments in Irish traditional dance music are the fiddle, the tin whistle, the flute and the uilleann pipes. Their history goes back several hundred years. The button accordion and concertina arrived late in the 19th century, and the tenor banjo came in the 1920s. The guitar appeared in recordings in the 1930s, and the bouzouki joined the tradition only in the late 1960s. The piano is often used for accompaniment, and the harp, which died out as a tradition in the late 18th century, was revived in the mid-20th century and plays a smaller part in dance music. A hooley band may use some of these, none or all.
The fiddle
The fiddle is almost always a violin played in a traditional style, and it ranks among the most important instruments in the repertoire. Regional styles vary widely, with well-known fiddling traditions from Donegal, Sligo, Clare and Sliabh Luachra. A poetic reference to a fiddle dates back to the 7th century, though anything that early would have been an instrument unlike the modern violin. If you see a violin played in this style at a hooley, you are watching a fiddler, not a classical player.
The tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is one of the core instruments of Irish dance music and one of those most closely linked to Irish music. Players decorate the tunes with ornaments, including grace notes, rolls and cuts, which give the melody its characteristic lift. The low whistle, a larger relative with a deeper tone, is also popular, though some players find it less agile in a session than the flute or the ordinary whistle.
The uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. The bag is inflated by a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and arm, and the Irish name means pipes of the elbow. In 2017 UNESCO listed uilleann piping as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage, describing a highly developed practice with roots going back many generations. If a piper plays at your hooley, you are hearing an instrument with international heritage status.
The bodhran
The bodhran is a frame drum, usually 35 to 45 cm across, with a goatskin head. The player holds one hand against the inside of the skin to change the pitch and strikes it with a short stick called a cipin or tipper. Its history is debated: some say it began as an agricultural riddle used to sift grain, others that it grew from the tambourine in the 19th century. Some modern bodhráns carry a tuning system like those on drum kits. In a band it keeps time and gives the music its drive.
How a pub session works
A session is an informal gathering of musicians in a pub, playing tunes together without a set list. Pub sessions are now the home of much of Irish traditional music. The first known modern pub session took place in London in 1947, and the practice reached Ireland later; by the 1960s Dublin pubs held their own. Guitars and bouzoukis are widely accepted in modern sessions, though in a large session they can be hard to hear over fiddles and whistles. A Hooley Night is different: it is a planned show with a running order, though its musicians come from the same tradition.
Frequently asked questions
Will uilleann pipes be played at the Hooley?
Possibly, but which instruments play on a given night is the band's choice. Treat any single instrument as a possibility.
What is a bodhran?
A bodhran is an Irish frame drum with a goatskin head, played with a short stick or the hand. It keeps the beat in a band.
Is a pub session the same as the Hooley?
No. A session is informal and unplanned. The Hooley is a ticketed evening with dinner, music and a dance show.
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