About halfway through our trip, we will have a wonderful evening out to see a program of Irish music, dance, and song called “Trad on the Prom.” “Trad” (rhymes with “bad”) stands for “traditional” and is the short name given to the rebirth of Irish traditional music that occurred in second half of twentieth century, a movement that continues to today.

Along with a push to modernize Ireland, first Big Bands, then Rock and Roll, and other music movements rose in popularity at mid-century, threatening to supplant the traditional folk music that had developed to such a high degree throughout the island and that had influenced folk music in every corner of the Irish diaspora (Bluegrass music is a direct descendant of the Irish tradition). Seeing this threat, young performers—many of them from musical families or towns—started to revive the traditional forms, learning from the aging experts and taking their art in new directions, as well. They taught others, and the Trad movement is now in its third or fourth generation. In Dublin and elsewhere, you’ll be able to find “sessions” of “Trad” at many pubs, sometimes with local musicians coming together for an evening, and sometimes with groups that travel the country. I love spending an evening this way, especially since Ireland banned smoking in bars, restaurants, and other public buildings in 2004, becoming the first country in the world to do so.

When we are in Galway, we have an evening booked at the Trad on the Prom dinner and show, held at the Galway Bay Hotel in Salthill, on “The Promenade”—a broad sidewalk following the shore of Galway Bay. Trad on the Prom is a very special show—I’ve seen it twice and plan to see it again any time I’m in the Galway area from May to September. Each summer the director of the show and lead guitarist, Chris Kelly, brings together Ireland’s finest trad performers, many of them legends in their field—like Gerard Fahy, renowned uilleann pipe player and composer of “Lords of the Dance”—and many fresh of them from winning vocal and dance competitions around the world. For over two incredible hours, you’ll see their talents displayed. Watch this video of step-dancing, and you’ll see what I mean, or hear Marc Roberts singing “Galway Girl.” One of my favorite Trad on the Prom performers is Emma O’Sullivan, who does an even older form of traditional step dance called “seán nós” (SHĂN-noss) or “old style.” Seán nós dancing is less stylized and more casual than what is often called “Irish step dancing,” but has a charm of its own. The video shows her at another venue doing the “brush dance,” a broom dance that might have been performed in the cottages on the Great Blasket Island in Tomás O’Crohan’s day. It is said that Irish “step” dancing emphasizes complex movement of the feet instead of leaps or wide arm movements because of the narrow spaces available in cottages and barns where the dances originated.

Above I mentioned the “uilleann pipes” (ILL-en), Ireland’s own bagpipes . “Uilleann” means “elbow,” and this instrument is played using a set of bellows operated with movements of the elbow that push air through the pipes. The resulting sound is not unlike the more familiar Scottish bagpipes but is somewhat softer and more mournful. The Scottish bagpipes are generally considered to be “outdoor” instruments, while the uilleann pipes are said to be “indoor” instruments. In Ireland a traditional band usually includes, guitar, fiddle, accordion or concertina, uilleann pipes, flute and Irish whistle, and a “bodhrán” (bow-RAWN), a round wood-framed drum with a goatskin head (today many heads are synthetic).

I think you will find Trad on the Prom to be one of the highlights of the trip. You can find lots of other great Trad on the Prom recordings on YouTube, and the musicians and singers all have CDs, available for purchase at the venue.