Music is a central part of Irish culture. Right now, traditional music is making a comeback in youth culture in Ireland, where people are trying to learn the Irish language and support Irish traditions. I went to a "trad" (short for traditional) "session" in Ireland at an Irish "pub" (short for "public house"), where people play musical instruments together.
In this pub, I learned about a trad music gathering, called a "session," or a seisiún ceoil (sesh-oon kee-oh-l) in Irish. People bring different types of Irish instruments and play different traditional tunes together. Somehow, everyone knows all the traditional tunes, which means they can all play great music together. Sometimes, everyone will quiet down so that one person can sing a song. Some instruments that they use at these sessions are flutes, banjos and mandolins (another stringed instrument), drums (bodhrán, pronounced bow-rahn), guitars, accordions and concertinas (a kind of smaller accordion), and either bagpipes or uilleann (ill-ehn) pipes.
