best towns with traditional music in september 2025

Having taken the 14 day RS Best of Ireland tour in 2019, hands down the best music we heard (and we heard a lot of great music wherever we went) was the buskers in Galway. Great memories!

I’ll suggest Dingle as well as Galway.

The Crane bar in Galway http://www.thecranebar.com/

Thank you so much! The three of you (replies) confirmed our research about Galway and we are doing the Ring of Kerry in reverse order from the tour buses as Rick suggests. . I will report back on any special pubs we find! My travel companion heard great music in dingle....it may not be on our itinerary....

https://thesession.org/sessions/ has fairly reliable info about trad sessions. Doolin is reliable. A lot of smaller towns have weekly sessions, but September might see them sputter as people get back to school, etc.

thank you JJ Gurley and Anita. Rick sent me The Sessions web site - it is robust! And musicians who are traveling add their dates and their instruments. I will report back to the Forum after our trip in September.

In 1997, I visited the relatives of a coworker in County Sligo. I learned from them that Tubbercurry (sometimes spelled Tobercurry), Co. Sligo, has a rich tradition of Irish music because it hosts the famed South Sligo Summer School (https://www.southsligosummerschool.com/). However, that's going on in July, two months before your trip, when concerts associated with the school are held. According to my friends, however, Tubbercurry and surrounding towns have great Irish music throughout the year. I heard great trad music in nearby Ballymote in October.

An addendum: The Galway Arts Festival will overlap during your trip: https://www.giaf.ie/. I've never been to it in my 5 trips to Ireland, but I'm told it's fabulous.

We visit Ireland a lot and make a point to visit one or two (or more!) pubs to hear Trad each day. We are pretty old, so we are always seeking early sessions, always taking advantage of early Saturday and Sunday afternoons. We use https://thesession.org/sessions a lot, plus we seek out local Facebook groups (try entering "Trad Sessions in " ") for each county. We've been able to catch some set dancing via https://sets.ie/home.html?band=PRGN.

1) We agree that buskers in Galway tend to be a better standard than anywhere else in the country, so that alone makes just walking in Galway a treat. We've found good sessions throughout the town at too many pubs to list; it just depends on the timing for us. **Tig Cóilí has a variety of hours and a good central location, so it's a great place to touch base and then move outwards to all the others.

2) Ennis was part of our first trip to Ireland and there is certainly good Trad there. Just look up the schedule.

3) Doolin was also part of our first experience, but during our visit, there were no afternoon sessions in the excellent Trad pubs, and we had kids with us. We sort of had them stay past their welcome. Timing is everything. We once caught set dancing in nearby Lisdoonvarna, and one of our girls who looks like an Irish lass was partnered the entire night because everyone just expected she knew the steps. Well, she sure did by the end. I have no idea if your dates align with its Matchmaking Festival.

4) We've had amazing luck in Dublin, even though our Galway friends told us over and over, "There's no good Trad back East". We once spent 9 hours in four pubs with excellent music in one day there. By the end of the week, we knew where all of our favorites were playing.

5) We had two days of non-stop Trad after 1 pm in Dingle. Again, look up your sessions and be sure to ask locals where your next stop should be. We sort of went with the town flow because locals do incline towards adopting strays. We behaved like perfect rescue dogs.

6) Our first trip to Westport was at the tail end of a Blue Grass festival. People NOT performing at their appointed hours ended up in spontaneous sessions throughout the town. It's worth exploring.

7) Cork was probably the only place we had bad luck. Our promised Saturday and Sunday afternoon sessions didn't quite work out, and the rest tended to be way past our bedtime. We were totally shocked that our experience there was not better, especially since we'd been able to seek out good Trad in the States and in other countries with ease. Consider this city report to be a one-off and hope for the best.

We wish you luck!

We'll be visiting Cork during our 21 day May trip, and the council appears to be supporting Trad wholeheartedly:

https://www.theleesessions.com/index.php

Maybe it's all a façade, but I can confirm in June. I have found that bars use a little poetic license when claiming certain hours for music and sometimes stretch the definition of Trad to include "two guys with electric guitars". On our last trip we had three nights of misses (out of 20) due to Facebook deception, specifically in Dunfanaghy and Portrush.
Since I usually pick towns and lodging based on walking distance to Trad, it's extra irksome.