Travelling with a 14 year old- looking for good traditional music in Dublin & Connemara

I would not assume that there is no Trad to be found except in pubs after 9 pm. On our last Irish trip we went into a pub on a Sunday afternoon for a bite. Lucky for us, there was a fantastic jam session happening in a corner. We had our lunch and stayed on, moving closer and closer in until we were sitting right among the musicians. At one point a mom and 12-ish year old girl holding a fiddle came in and sat next to us. The girl asked permission to play, was given a small nod by one of the players and jumped in with the tune. While they played we talked with the mom. Seems they were Swiss citizens living for a few years in Ireland. Daughter was very enamored of Trad and mom took her out frequently to join in with the locals at various nearby venues & times that were kid-friendly. I don't presently recall which town that was, somewhere along the S. coast I think. But based our observations around Galway County, I personally would be surprised if you could not find something similar in Connemara region. It might take some searching and asking among the locals. I'd be willing to bet if you can find such a venue your kids will be very impressed. Hopefully someone will be playing bones. I'm smiling now just thinking about it. Have a grand time.

Hi Hanson, we just returned from Ireland and it seemed that music was everywhere. Just wandering through the streets we found great traditional music in the pubs during the daytime and early evening. There were lots of families with children of all ages enjoying lunch and the entertainment. Talk with the folks at your hotel to find out if there are concerts at the local churches or other venues. We went to a wonderful concert at Saint James Church in Dingle, I bet there are similar concerts like that in Dublin.

For one of your nights, you may actually want to sign up for the Musical Pub Crawl that is recommended in the Rick Steves guidebook. The website is here: https://www.musicalpubcrawl.com. It begins early enough, and the performances are private, so I'm guessing that the age of your son would not be an issue regardless of how long the evening continues.

My husband was a bit disappointed in the pub crawl as he thought we were going to be dropping into different bars and hearing whatever music was "on" that evening, but we all enjoyed what we did receive--the background to Irish traditional music and the comedy that was a large part of the show. My twenty-one-year-old son probably enjoyed it more than any of us. I don't think I've ever seen him laugh so much in one evening. Moving from place to place as a group of mostly Americans new to Ireland allowed us to develop the kind of openness and camaraderie that carried us through the rest of our trip. (We did this on our first night in Dublin/Ireland, and it was a nice soft beginning.)