Best Place for Traditional Irish Music in Ireland?

Thanks for the pub article. It's actually quite similar to the one in Rick's 2010 Ireland book, which was quite helpful.

We experienced great music in Doolin. One particularly memorable session included a didgeridoo! Basically, I remember the west having good music lots of places. We also scored in Clifden, in Connemara.

Doolin is considered the center of Irish music in the west of Ireland. Lahinch also has a couple of nice pubs, as does Lisdoonvarna, all within an hour of each other.

Try this website:

http://comhaltas.ie/

"Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. We’re a non-profit cultural movement with hundreds of local branches around the world..."

I'm not sure how many of their sessions involve pubs, but I listened to a session put on by one of their groups (in a community center in Ennis) and it was quite authentic.

Besides Doolin and Dingle, we found great music in Galway City. The "Crane" had really great sessions on both ground level, and esp. upstairs. Also caught a good session at Tafts, and Tig Coili(spelling?)

We really enjoyed the sessions in Westport at Matt Maloy's Pub (of Chieftain fame).

A real hot-bead of trad music is in southern Sligo county. Numerous excellent musicians live in that region, and particularly around Tubercurry and Gurteen. We heard Peter Horan, 2 nights in a row in the small village of Gurteen. He is a brilliant flute player, and not shabby on the fiddle either. Gurteen has the "Colman Music Center" and we spent over 2 hours in the upstairs listening lab, with earphone on, listening to numerous famous Irish musicians via their recordings. The Colman Center had a live session every Sat night last summer in their new state-of-the-art music theater. Information should be available for this coming summer on their websight.

Traditional Irish music is alive and well in Ireland, as we witnessed by the sheer numbers of young people (teens to early twenties) that were doing sessions in the pubs. Just ask the locals when you first get to any Irish town that has a few pubs, and they will steer you in the right direction! Dan

We are going with one of the RS tours - in our free time, where might we go (Galway, Dublin, Dingle) - within range of public transportation?

Paul, you couldn't have picked a better time to come to Ireland, the Willie Week, an annual summer school for traditional Irish musicians (from Ireland and all over the world), is on between the 7th and 15th July 2012 (2012 is the 40th year) in Miltown Malbay, this is the premier traditional Irish music festival, music (schooling and playing) and craic virtually around the clock for the 10 days, all you need is staying power. http://www.visitmilltownmalbay.ie/cms/index.php?page=willieclancy Edit: Hadn't realised, until advised, that Paul's opening post was from 2010, I'll leave this post up here anyway, just in case anybody is interested for 2012.

In Dingle, I especially enjoyed the Dingle Pub and the Courthouse Pub. The latter is a little small but the operators are great. I favor the vocal music (ballads, rebel songs) over the instrumental but it's all great. The church concert on Saturdays was a great mix of vocal and instrumental but I think the lineup changes weekly. An Seanachie and the White House are great in Kinsale. Didn't have enough time to find good locations in Galway, but I'm sure they are there. If you are on the tour, I think you will find the music is easier to find in Dublin, Kinsale, Dingle and Galway. Less so the further north you go.

I am sure there are lots of good places for traditional music, but one that we enjoyed was Cruise's Pub in Ennis. It's not a very tourist-oriented town, and when we were there it was pretty much all locals except for my wife and me, and one other American. This was in 2002 it could be different now. A quick Google suggests that they still have traditional music there. Ennis is very close to Shannon airport, within half an hour or so, and is day trip distance from Galway.

I don't remember the name of the pub, or the town for that matter (not a good sign) but whenever we heard Irish music in any of the restaurant/pubs it was amazing. I had been a fan of lots of the women Irish singers, but in one of the pubs there was a band playing a song I had never heard before, but it was amazing and I knew I would never forget hearing it that first time... after a little investigation I found out it was The Lonesome Boatman...so if you are hanging out in a pub, ask the band if they can play it.

Traditional music does not mean folk songs i made this mistake