Happy Friday! Pólca 4's energetic brand of Irish trad is a perfect match for dancers. Their shows get the whole room dancing or clapping along, which I got to experience for myself when I supported them in September last year. Most fun I've had in a long time 😄 Here they are with two reels: The Concertina / Trip to Cullenstown (video from 2017) #irishmusic #musicstr

GM! Today I'm posting my all-time favourite fiddler, Kevin Burke, playing Farewell to Erin. No band needed, the fiddle does all the talking 😌 #irishmusic #musicstr #fiddle

A performance of Mary and the Soldier by Paul Brady and Andy Irvine in 1976. This song always brings a little tear to my eye 🥹

The Friel Sisters are one of my all-time favourite Irish music artists, and they also happen to be lovely people, as I had the opportunity to meet them in 2018. Here they are with a set of reels: The Jolly Tinker (Donegal version) / Sailing into Walpole's Marsh / The Flowers of Red Hill. Unfortunately the video gets cut off at the end, but all the more reason to go and check out to their albums 😉 #irishmusic #musicstr

And we're back after a few days' rest with the Lament for Limerick, played by Chris McMullan on the uilleann pipes This beautiful slow air is said to be a Jacobean tune lamenting the defeat at Limerick in 1691 #irishmusic #musicstr

For today, I have selected this energetic tune, composed and performed by Calum Stewart, a Scottish uilleann piper. It's called Am Monadh Ruadh, the Scottish Gaelic name for the Cairngorms, and can be found on Calum's 2017 album, Tales from the North. Well worth a listen

Good vibes from the streets of Galway 🎶 Dancer Emma O'Sullivan joins fiddler Fergal Scahill for a tune and a dance. Fergal's "Tune a Day" series on Youtube has surely become one of the most extensive libraries of Irish tunes online. Since this video, he's reached #1706. That's dedication! #musicstr #irishmusic #dance #fiddle

In 2019, Raglan Road was named Ireland's favourite folk song in a poll by RTÉ The song started out as a poem written by Patrick Kavanagh and was later set to music to the tune of the slow air "The Dawning of the Day" (Fáinne Geal an Lae). Sung here by the delightful Mary Black

As one of the most influential bands in Irish music for the last 50 years, this probably won't be the last time I post the Bothy Band here. They are the ones that started it all for me. The tunes in this set are: Old Hag You Have Killed Me (jig) / Dinny Delaney's (slide, aka. The Hag at the Kiln) / Morrison's Jig Absolutely characteristic of the Bothy Band's signature energy and drive 🔥