Ireland: bagpipes and pagan sites
April 4, 2023 11:18 AM

My cousin is going to Ireland and is very interested in bagpipes and Pagan sites/culture. Does anyone have any pointers? Assume that I have already Googled this and am looking for more.
posted by rednikki to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
Pointer number one is that the pipes most commonly played in Ireland are Uilleann pipes. The phrase "trad music" or "tradceol" should get you some action, also the concept of a "session". By pagan sites I guess you mean neolithic sites or "pre-christian" site, pagan might get you some rolleyes. Send him up to Newgrange, it's quite something, he can look into the Hill of Tara, etc too.
posted by Iteki at 12:10 PM on April 4, 2023


Fair warning: my Irish friend wants you to know that the Hill of Tara is covered in sheep shit.
posted by headspace at 1:40 PM on April 4, 2023


Dowth This is a great website that describes site information in detail on the alignment of various pagan burial sites as a whole.
posted by effluvia at 5:31 PM on April 4, 2023


Modern pagan/wiccan: The Fellowship of Isis. Wiccans are alive and stalking about the land.

Old rock art: Christiaan Corlett has written the definitive Inscribing the landscape - the rock art of south Leinster [2014]. Some of which illustrated here. His group are responsible for a zoomable map of the island whereby yr Coz can find GPSed archaeo-sites local to wherever they wash up.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:40 AM on April 5, 2023


There are standing stones all over the place, loads of them are not mapped and they are all mostly just in some random farmer's field.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:48 AM on April 5, 2023


There don't seem to be dates for a 2023 edition (yet?) but for an immersive introduction to the uilleann piping tradition and to listen to some of the best modern practitioners, I'd make a beeline for this festival in Armagh.

Wherever your friend is going in Ireland, they should ask around for/Google which pubs host the best trad sessions. Whether they'll get to hear a piper or not will depend on the specific mix of musicians that frequent that particular session - they're not as common as, say, fiddle players - but if they're interested in the music they'll have a great time regardless.
posted by FavourableChicken at 9:25 AM on April 5, 2023


« Older What kind of data analytics skills for...   |   What was the name of that book? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.