The noise from a passing tram almost drowns out the music when I walk past a small pub and notice a crowd of patrons inside. Then I hear an Irish reel being played at a dizzying pace. I look in to see a man and three women playing fiddles alongside a guitarist, a keyboard player and a man with a small accordion. My feet tell me what to do next.
I walk in and order a Guinness.
I am on Marlborough Street, a few blocks north of the River Liffey, and I have just found a pub where the regulars live for traditional Irish music. I relax as I stand at the back of the room and listen to playing that is so fast it seems frenetic – except that is the wrong word, because every note is perfectly controlled. It feels both wild and disciplined.
In the movies, of course, there’s a pub like this on every corner. But this one, known as Pipers Corner, stands out. I have just come from Temple Bar, the tourist drawcard on Dublin’s south side, where I heard talented guitarists fill the pubs with classic hits. I knew it was time to walk on when one of them started a John Denver tune. I love finding Pipers Corner by accident on the walk back to my hotel.
This gets me wondering about the health of traditional music when it is easier for Dublin pubs to draw crowds with pop rock. Then I track down Seán Potts, who set up Pipers Corner with others in 2017, and he assured me that Irish music is alive and well. The pandemic hit the business hard, he says, but the pub has recovered with a program of regular players most nights of the week.
“I think Irish music is stronger than it has ever been in its history, and I don’t say that lightly,” he says. “I think the work of people over the past 50 years to ensure its wellbeing has been incredibly successful. The music is handed down from generation to generation, and some people take it and they excel artistically with it. And judging from the young people who are playing today, I can see it’s in incredibly safe hands.”
Potts plays the uilleann pipes, the Irish bagpipes pumped with an elbow, and comes from a family immersed in music. His father, also Seán, was a co-founder of the legendary Irish folk band The Chieftains in 1962. Back then, says Potts, the music was mostly played in the home, so what I enjoy at Pipers Corner is a relatively new custom. It took many years, as licensing laws eased and the Catholic Church lost some of its social power, for the music scene to come alive in the pubs in the 1960s and 1970s.
On my next night, the front corner is occupied by two flute players Larlaith Mac Gabhann and Conor Healy, and guitarist Paul Doyle (pictured, from left). Some of the music they’re playing has been passed on to them by musicians born in the 1920s and 1930s, they tell me during a short break. They can explore older music, as well, thanks to technology. Mac Gabhann digitises this audio and video in his day job at the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
“With the technology now, we’re actually able to go back even further than our parents’ generation,” he says. So, while the internet age has presented plenty of challenges to live music, it has also produced ways to keep traditions alive.
“I come from a musical family, but what about someone who doesn’t?” says Mac Gabhann. “They have the same chance to play music – they don’t have to be born into it.” They might even learn Irish tunes by seeing them on YouTube.
As the trio end their break and prepare to play again, Doyle says he is not worried about the outlook for Irish music. “It’s as strong as ever,” he says.
As I look around the bar when the music resumes, I feel sure he is right.
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