The similarity of many words meaning "deaf" and "drum" in Indo-European languages has been discussed on Mudcat and elsewhere.You need to study this in some detail, but examples include the name sordo for the samba bass drum(also means deaf in Portuguese)), and the word daff for bodhran like drums in the middle-east.There are a very large number of such examples, I understand.
It is also suggested(anahata mentions the connection earlier) that bodhran is not an old word(as applied to a drum) but is a recent coinage, a Gaelicised version of the word "tambourine".Doubtless someone nmore versed in the Irish language could supply the references(for and against).