| Name | Image | Description | Video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodhran |  | The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65cm (10" to 26") in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45cm (14" to 18"). The sides of the drum are 9 to 20cm (3½" to 8") deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side (although nowadays, synthetic heads, or new materials like kangaroo skin, are sometimes used). The other side is open ended for one hand to be placed against the inside of the drum head to control the pitch and timbre. One or two crossbars, sometimes removable, may be inside the frame, but this is increasingly rare on professional instruments. The image shows a bodhrán with two-headed tipper. | |
| Bones |  | The bones are a folk instrument which, at the simplest, consists of a pair of animal bones, or pieces of wood or a similar material. Sections of large rib bones and lower leg bones are the most commonly used true bones, although wooden sticks shaped like the earlier true bones are now more often used. They have contributed to many music genres, including 19th century minstrel shows, traditional Irish music, the blues, bluegrass, zydeco, French-Canadian music, and music from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. The image shows a painting titled "The Bone Player" by William Sidney Mount, 1856. | |
| Celtic Harp |  | The Celtic harp or folk harp is small to medium-sized and usually designed for traditional music. It can be played solo or with small groups. It is prominent in Welsh, Breton, Irish, Scottish and other Celtic cultures within traditional or folk music and as a social and political symbol. It’s around 1 meter tall, with curved neck and pillar. It has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. The image shows a reenactor playing a Celtic harp on the Hill-McNeil Store porch, New Salem, Illinois, 2006. | |
| Irish Bouzouki |  | The Irish bouzouki (colloquially, the "zouk") is a derivative of the Greek bouzouki. Within a few years of the bouzouki's adoption in Ireland the Greek bouzouki began to be replaced by a design built specifically for Irish traditional music. The body was widened and in most cases a flat back with straight sides replaced the round, stave-built back of the Greek bouzouki. | |
| Lambeg Drum |  | A Lambeg drum is a large Irish drum, beaten with curved malacca canes. It is used primarily in Northern Ireland by Unionists and the Orange Order traditionally in street parades held in the summer, particularly on and around 12 July ("The Twelfth"). The weight of the drum means that it had been replaced with smaller replicas for most parades, but the full-sized instrument has started to reappear in recent years - usually on floats. | |
| Píob Mhór |  | The píob mhór (also called Great Irish Warpipes, The Bagpipes, or The Pipes) is an instrument that in modern practice is identical, and historically was analogous or identical to the Great Highland Bagpipe. "Warpipes" is an English term. The first use of the Gaelic term in Ireland is recorded in a poem by Sean O’Neachtain (c. 1650-1728), in which the bagpipes are referred to as píb mhór. The Warpipes have a long and significant history in Ireland and in Scotland. The image shows a piper playing an instrument with two drones and a chanter in the usual positions. The drones are of unequal length and all pipes have flaring Medieval-style bell ends. The painting is from a c. 16th century Irish missal, now in the Bodleian Library. | |
| Tin Whistle |  | The tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, pennywhistle,dilli ney or Irish whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. The Irish words for the instrument are feadóg ('whistle' or 'flute') or feadóg stáin. It can be described as an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the flageolet, recorder, Native American flute, and many other woodwind instruments found in traditional music. | |
| Uilleann Pipes |  | Uilleann pipes (or "Union pipes") are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. The uilleann pipes bag is inflated by means of a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm. The bellows not only relieves the player from the effort needed to blow into a bag to maintain pressure, they also allow relatively dry air to power the reeds, reducing the adverse affects of moisture on tuning and longevity. The uilleann pipes have a different harmonic structure, sounding sweeter and quieter than many other bagpipes. The uilleann pipes are usually played indoors, and are almost always played sitting down. The chanter has a range of two full octaves, including sharps and flats. The chanter can be played staccato by resting the bottom of the chanter on the piper's knee to close off the bottom hole and then open and close only the tone holes required. |
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