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Irish Dance
t h e m u s i c

Ancient Irish Musical Instruments

In the National Museum, Dublin you can see what are claimed to be the earliest irish musical instruments found – twenty-six trumpets made of bronze. These date back to at least 500BC.

According to the writings of the Irish monks at St Gall’s between AD 650 and 900, there were several types of ancient instruments:

cruit & clárseach (harp)
psalterium, nabla, timpan, kinnor, (stringed instruments)
trigonon & ocht-tedach
buinne (oboe or flute)
bennbuabhal & corn (horns)
cuislenna (bagpipes)
feadán (flute or fife)
guthbuinne (horn)
stoc & sturgan (trumpets)
pípai (pipes)
craebh ciúil & crann ciúil (musical branch of cymbalum)
cnámha (castanets)
fidil (fiddle)

The professional names of the various performers were:

cruitire (harper)
timpanach (timpanist)
buinnire (flute player)
cornaire (horn player)
cuisleannach (bagpipe player)
feadánaigh (fife player)
graice (horn player)
stocaire & sturganaidhe (trumpeter)
pípaire (piper)

From The Complete Guide to Irish Dance by Frank Whelan, published by Appletree Press.

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