Guest.
I have a little book " Four centuries of music in Ireland" edited by Brian Boydell. First published in 1979 by the British Broadcastinf Corporation. It contains a number of essays based on a series of programmes broadcast to mark the 50th anniversary of teh B.B.C. in Northern Ireland. I quote from a passage from the introduction " The approximate timespan of four centuries is imposed by the almost complete lack of any precise evidence concerning the nature of music performed or produced in Ireland befopre the end of the 16th century. We do know from literary and pictorial evidence that music played an extremely important part in the social life of medieval Ireland. What was clearly a polyphonic choir was established in St. Patrick'e Cathedral in Dublin in 1431; and we know that harps such as the famous 14th century one in Trinity College were played by musicians who enjoyed a very high position in the social hierachy. A few fragments remains from the cathedral music but no trace remains of the music of the Gaelic civilization which was so enthusiastically described (albeit in rather vague terms) by Giraldus Cambrensis after his tour of Ireland in the 12th century.
- quote - the early Irish music was an aural tradition and no record has yet been found in hte form of written notation. The other reason which is probably important in connection with monastic and catherral music. is that the turmoil and warfare which so seldom left this unfortunate country at peace for very long, was hardly conductive to the preservation of manuscripts - unquote

As you see from the above snippets taken from the book, there was definitely some kind of folk music in the 12th century. I believe that there has been music in Ireland since the first celts arrived. We may have lost much of the music from the past, but the future looks really good ?.

Nice topic for a thread.

Slan

Jimmy