Dublin Things to Do

From January 25-29th, 2012 the 7th annual Irish Music and Culture Festival will bring Temple Bar and the rest of Dublin alive during the cold days and dark nights of winter.

Headline concerts will be held in some of Dublin’s landmark buildings, with performances at the nearly 1,000-year-old Christ Church Cathedral, including The Dubliners 50th anniversary concert and Ralph McTell. Plus lunchtime and intimate evening concerts of Irish music at Dublin’s City Hall, including some of Ireland’s leading musicians such as Voices and Harps, featuring Moya Brennan.

Ireland is famous for its music: jigs, polkas, reels. The harp, the accordion, the fiddle. Traditionally, Irish music was based in the community or the extended family; you invited people over for a seisiun (Irish for session), they brought their instruments and everyone played or tapped their feet in appreciation. Tunes were played by ear, memorized, passed down the generations. But as with so many things, the 20th century brought some changes.