The Companion to Irish Traditional Music

Chronology: A Timeline of Irish Music in History

762 BC 5935 First settlement in Ireland at Mount Sandel, Co. Derry. 4500 Evidence of stone tools. 3000 Megalithic tomb at Proleek, Co. Louth. 2500 Newgrange passage grave (end of Stone Age)’ harps developed in Mesopotamia (Iraq, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates). 2000 Neolithic period – oldest (speculated) aerophone, Co. Wicklow. 1100 Pre-Celtic, Bronze Age horns in NE, Offaly and SW. 700 Early reputed legislation accords the highest of social status to poets, judges, historians and musicians. 500 Eamhain Macha (Navan Fort). 300 Iron Age trumpets in Armagh, Down and Tipperary. 250 Incursions of Celts; end of Bronze Age. 51 Caesar’s use of ‘Hibernia’ for Ireland. AD 150 First map of Ireland (Ptolemy’s). 432 St Patrick’s mission in Ireland. c.440 Brehon Laws documented; including roles and rights regarding musicians. 500 Early medieval wooden horns in Mayo and Fermanagh. c.650 Book of Durrow, first illuminated manuscript. 600s Fiddles mentioned at Fair of Carman. 700s Earliest harp-lyre and triple pipes depictions, on St Muiredach’s Cross, Monasterboice, Co. Louth, and at Durrow. 795 First Viking incursion, Antrim. 841 Vikings set up at Dublin (leave in 902) 925 Vikings (Danes) in Dublin. c.1000 Triangular harp depicted on St Meadóg’s shrine; Brian Ború defeats Vikings. 1100s Bow fragment from Dublin, earliest in Europe; earliest image of a bowed lyre in Ireland, Kerry; triangular harp carving, Waterford; Irish triangular harp established. 1170 Dublin occupied by Normans. 1171 English King Henry II claims Ireland. 1172 ‘Drummond’ missal has earliest Irish notated music. 1188 Cambrensis publishes information on Irish harp style. 1200s Flutes made of bird bones in Dublin. 1265 New Ross’s fortifications: reference to carolling on the ramparts. 1297 Gaelic dress forbidden for English colonists. 1300s Trinity College harp, oldest surviving Irish chordophone. 1366 Statutes of Kilkenny against Gaelicisation of Anglo Normans; obligatory English language, dress and customs. 1375 Mac Morrough’s Gaelic rebellion in Leinster. 1395 Richard II regains English control. 1413 Dancing described at Baltimore, Co. Cork. 1420 Moving pictures anticipated by Johannes De Fontana’s camera obscura. 1446 ‘Pale’ established. 1460 Drogheda parliament decrees ‘Irish law for Irish people’. 1531 Henry VIII head of Church of England; Reformation. 1551 Violin design invented by Amati in Italy; first book printed in Ireland – Book of Common Prayer; ‘moving pictures’, as described by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1500, the ‘camera obscura’ used to view live theatre. Chronology: A Timeline of Irish Music in History 763 Chronology: A Timeline of Irish Music in History 1571 ‘Execute the Harpers’ (edict, Gerald, Earl of Kildare); first book in Irish printed in Ireland. 1588 Spanish Armada. Rebellions culmination in Battle of Yellow Ford, 1598. 1592 TCD f ounded. 1599 Scott’s Lamentation composed, John and Harry Scott. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY c.1600 Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin composes ‘Tabhair Dom do Lámh’; Baroque music period begins. 1601 Defeat of Irish at Kinsale. 1605 Compulsory attendance at established church; Catholic clergy expelled. 1607 Ulster Gaelic earls leave Ireland (Flight of the Earls). 1609 Plantation of Ulster. c.1610 The Fitzwilliam Virginal book, with some Irish airs including ‘Cailín Ó Chois tSiúire mé’. 1636 ‘Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland’ (Four Masters) completed. 1649 Oliver Cromwell in charge of English forces in Ireland. 1674 Fiddles and dance reported as popular in rural Ireland. 1686 First music to be printed in Ireland (songs with notes engraved on copper) by Robert Thornton in Dublin [NIC11]. 1689 Apprentice Boys resist the siege of Derry. 1690 Battle of the Boyne, largest battle in Ireland: pipes and drums used; King William triumphs. 1691 Siege of Limerick; ‘Old English’ Irish leave for Europe (Wild Geese). 1695 Penal Laws forbid education of Catholics (ends in 1829); ‘Ar Éireann ní ’neosfain cé hÍ’ air appears in the Leyden MS, 75, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, as ‘Twide Syde’ (Tweedside) [AF8]. 1697 Expulsion of Irish Catholic clergy. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1701 First Irish music or song to be published as such: the song ‘Sín Suas agus Suas Liom’,in John Abell’s Collection of Songs in Several Languages [NIC16]. 1704 Classical music era begins; prohibition on Catholic purchase of land. 1713 Jonathan Swift installed as dean of St Patrick’s in Dublin; ‘An Crúiscín Lán’appears in print in John Young’s The Dancing Master, Vol. II (London) [AF7]. 1721 Fiddles advertised for sale by Neal in Dublin. 1724 First Irish-music collection printed in Ireland, Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, in Dublin by John and Wm. Neal...