Adding to my handy roundup of roundups, as the Irish tag has become unwieldy, here’s a selection of my dabblings in Irish music, which feature some exhilarating tracks that will brighten your days. This Songlines overview is useful.

Ciaran Carson’s exquisite Last night’s fun has inspired several posts, including

• On tune titles: Ask my father
• A paean to the fry-up, and the music of time
• On competition—topped by the story of the three fiddlers
• More early music, with a quote from 1185 that could be contemporary
• Chinese mouth-organs and Irish flutes.

And this charming recollection, told to me at a session in an Armagh pub, has a Carsonesque lilt to it.

i got further into the swing with

• More Irish fiddlers
• Women in early Irish music (including pipers—cf. Scottish pibroch)

• The Irish pub session (dating from post-war London!)
• On the bogus neologism craic
• sean-nós singing, old and new.

To whet your appetite, here’s an irresistible playlist:

See also under Indian and world fiddles. And while I’m here, may I remind you of the great Flann O’Brien (more under Myles tag), and various fine Irish jokes such as these.