The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131826   Message #2984962
Posted By: Jim Carroll
12-Sep-10 - 05:52 AM
Thread Name: Child Ballads survived in oral trad.
Subject: RE: Child Ballads survived in oral trad.
In Ireland the songs, music and dancing were always home activities Patty.
One veteran fiddle player told us that it was when they started playing in the pubs that the music went downhill.
The tradition was that after a days work the locals would 'make their coor'; stroll over to a neighbour's house and swap songs, tunes, stories, or just chat. Some musiicians kept a spare instrument in a neighbouring house to save them the bother of carrying one over.
Regularlaly, dances would take place in the kitchens of some houses; the places with a reputation locally for music and song were known as 'céilí houses'.
Dancing and singing in the more remote areas took place at a crossroads in the open air; often there would be a platform built for the purpose.
The church was very much opposed to 'unsupervised gatherings' and priests forcibly broke up many of the crossroads dances, often smashing or confiscating the instruments. They disappeard completely with The Public Dance Halls Act - 1935, when the government introduced a tax on all such gatherings
Jim Carroll