The "Londonderry Air" is an Irish air that originated in County Londonderry, Ireland. It is popular among the American Irish diaspora and is well known throughout the world. The tune is played as the victory sporting anthem of Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games. The song "Danny Boy" uses the tune, with a set of lyrics written in the early 20th century.
Turlough O'Carolan was a blind Celtic harper, composer and singer in Ireland whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition.
George Derek Fleetwood Bell, MBE was a Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist and composer who was best known for his accompaniment work on various instruments with The Chieftains.
Pibroch, piobaireachd or ceòl mòr is an art music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterised by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate formal variations. Strictly meaning "piping" in Scottish Gaelic, piobaireachd has for some four centuries been music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Music of a similar nature, pre-dating the adoption of the Highland pipes, has historically been played on the wire-strung Gaelic harp and later on the Scottish fiddle, and this form is undergoing a revival.
"Give Me Your Hand" is a tune from early 17th century Ireland by Rory Dall O'Cahan. It is one of the most widely recorded pieces of Irish traditional music.
Francis O'Neill was an Irish-born American police officer and collector of Irish traditional music. His biographer Nicholas Carolan referred to him as "the greatest individual influence on the evolution of Irish traditional dance music in the twentieth century".
Edward Bunting (1773–1843) was an Irish musician and folk music collector.
The Belfast Harp Festival, called by contemporary writers The Belfast Harpers Assembly, 11–14 July 1792, was a three-day event organised by Dr. James McDonnell, Robert Bradshaw and Henry Joy,, a six-year lapse from the last Granard harp festival. Edward Bunting, aged 19, was commissioned to take down the airs, which formed the major part of his Collection, published in 1796. The venue of the contest was in The Assembly Room, of the now unoccupied and until recently, Northern Bank building on Waring Street in Belfast.
Henry Philerin Hudson was an Irish composer, folk song collector and scholar.
The Irish Traditional Music Archive, operating as a charity, is a "national reference archive and resource centre for the traditional song, instrumental music and dance of Ireland". Focusing on Irish traditional music, Irish dance and their history, the archive covers the performance traditions of the island of Ireland, within the Irish diaspora, and other performers of Irish traditional music globally.
"Polly Vaughn" is an Irish folk-song.
Irish traditional music is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland.
Carolan's Welcome is a traditional air composed by the Irish harper/songwriter Turlough O'Carolan, (1670-1738). In Donal O'Sullivan's exhaustive book covering Carolan and all his songs, this piece is listed as the first of ten Carolan songs that do not have surviving titles. There it is identified only as number 171 in the Carolan repertoire. Nothing whatsoever is known about the origin of the tune, and no lyrics have been attributed to it.
Dr Hugh Shields was an authority on Irish traditional music and a founder member of the Folk Music Society of Ireland and the Irish Traditional Music Archive. He was also a senior lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. He wrote a number of works on Irish music and folklore.
Arthur O'Neill was an Irish harper, a virtuoso player of the Irish harp or cláirseach: he was active during the final decades of its unbroken instrumental tradition in the later 18th and very early 19th century. He was closely associated with Edward Bunting, and the Belfast Harp Society's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to preserve the instrument, attending the Belfast Harper's Assembly and serving as the Society's harp tutor until 1813. He is best known for his lively and humorous memoir, collected by Bunting, which contained many reminiscences of famous harpers and of the environment in which they played.
The Coolin, or The Coolun, is an Irish air often characterised as one of the most beautiful in the traditional repertoire.
The Hermit is the 1976 solo album by British folk musician John Renbourn. On this release, Renbourn drew from lute and harp sources, and pieces from Turlough O'Carolan such as O'Carolan's Concerto transcribed for guitar.
Charlotte Olivia Milligan Fox was an Irish composer, folk music collector and writer.
James Joseph (J.J.) Sheridan was an Irish pianist, composer, arranger and music historian who specialized in preserving and recording Irish music.