Please join us for our
Sundays at 12:30 p.m.
(Except on Ceilidh Sundays, then the session starts at 3 p.m.)
(Except on Ceilidh Sundays, then the session starts at 3 p.m.)
“I’d like to come to the sessions, but I don’t know the songs....”
The fiddle has predominated since the seventeenth century. The melodeon became popular in the 1890s. By the 1950s the accordion took over, particularly in Scotland. By the 1960s the guitar was the instrument most frequently heard in a pub. Nowadays so many people can afford instruments that ensemble playing is the norm.
Each session has its own informal rules. Generally there can be an unlimited number of instruments. Uilleann bagpipes are common in Irish sessions, but the more commonly known Great Highland Bagpipes are not typically used in a session, because they drown out other instruments.
The general rules are fairly simple, but depend on the kind of session. It is customary to introduce oneself to the other participants before joining in. The session is a place where there is the connection of music - where everyone is always sharing, growing, and learning. There will usually be a leader who sets the tone and keeps the session running smoothly; though often leader(s) do not appear to be leaders at all. Some sessions follow a round-robin structure, others have a more free-for-all approach, and the leader(s) of a session should be observed to see how this particular session is run.
It is frowned upon when one openly criticizes people who know only one song or only a few tunes. Sessions are occasions to be enjoyed by all participants - and it is a good place to learn, share, grow and have fun.
A pub session refers to playing music and/or singing in the relaxed social setting of a local pub. Performers sing and play traditional songs and tunes from the Irish, English and Scottish traditions, using instruments such as the fiddle, accordion, flute, mandolin, guitar, bouzouki and tin whistle. Singing and ale have happened together from ancient times, but written evidence is fragmentary until the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Hal and Falstaff discuss drinking and playing the "tongs and the bones".
The Session
Please contact us for a more extensive list of songs.
Here’s some of the songs we regularly play:
Tripping Up The Stairs
Flowers Of Edinburgh
Temperance Reel
Spootiskerry
Road To Lisdoonvarna
Swallowtail
Brenda Stubbert’s
Julia Delaney
The Butterfly
Kid On The Mountain
Farewell to Ireland
The High Reel
The High Road To Linton
Morrison’s Jig
Drowsy Maggie
Merrily Kiss The Quaker
Flowers Of Edinburgh
Temperance Reel
Spootiskerry
Road To Lisdoonvarna
Swallowtail
Brenda Stubbert’s
Julia Delaney
The Butterfly
Kid On The Mountain
Farewell to Ireland
The High Reel
The High Road To Linton
Morrison’s Jig
Drowsy Maggie
Merrily Kiss The Quaker
