Irish Folk Music and Culture
“Ireland's history as a colonized nation has set a precedent for locally based resistance to centralized rule and at the same time helped to establish the importance of a distinctive, uniform Irish identity opposed to that of an English ‘other.’”
-‐ Rachel Fleming in “Resisting Cultural Standardization: Comhaltas Ceoltóirí and the Revitalization of Traditional Music in Ireland”
“The Irish ballad group boom began in the early 1960s in Dublin. From an historical perspective one can see it as an offshoot of the American urban folk revival which had preceded it by several years.”
Musicians participating in a planned Session at The Temple Bar in Dublin
At the beginning of ONCE, we see a group of musicians performing traditional Irish folk songs in a pub. This scene does not flow directly into the plot of show, but
instead
captures something of the musical and cultural world that the show inhabits. Such gatherings of musicians in a pub or private home are known as “sessions.” Sessions are sometimes spontaneous, sometimes organized. Participants can include large numbers of musicians, and have become staples of Irish culture.
Though Irish traditional music dates from the middle ages, the so-‐called “traditional” Irish session is actually a rather recent phenomenon with roots in American culture as much as Irish. The first sessions we know of began in the 1960s. Around this time, the first ballad groups began to emerge in Ireland, the most famous of which was The Dubliners. These groups performed with traditional Irish instruments like the fiddle, accordion, and pennywhistle; however, they also centrally incorporated the guitar and banjo for the first time, drawing influence from the folk revivals in America and England. Flintan Vallelly writes in The Companion to Traditional Irish Music,
The groundwork for the resurgence of Irish music in the 1960s was laid a decade prior by the founding of the organization called Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, described as “the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music,” in 1951. After
Ireland
“The atmosphere of [Comhalta’s] early years was urgent; ‘revival’ was seen as a
achieved independence from England in 1921, Irish traditional music had been struggling to survive. Younger generations seemed uninterested in the ancient traditions and viewed them as backwards. The founding of Comhaltas was an effort to counter this trend, and revive Irish traditional music as a source of distinct cultural identity and pride.
The rise of the session and the rapid surge in popularity of Irish music from the 1960s through today is truly a cross-‐cultural phenomenon. Irish traditions melding with popular influences from abroad have given us Van Morrison, Bono, Riverdance, and opened the door for the popularity of films like Once. Hansard himself performed the songs of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan as a busker (street performer) on Grafton Street in Dublin, where his character in the film also performs. Grafton is a primary tourist attraction in Dublin, and Irish music has become a significant draw for international tourists. Irish traditional music itself is a significant site of cultural exchange, and the music in ONCE is no exception.
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mission to pass on valued traditions and ensure their survival and
enhancement for posterity.”
– The Companion
to Traditional Irish Music
www.thetemplebarpub.com
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