The restoration of Derry musician Seamus McGuinness’s handmade bodhrán has featured in a bittersweet episode of BBC1 series The Repair Shop. Seamus, who died from cancer in March 2016, made the ...

The Footloose star – he’s got a ton of other stuff to his credit too, but the ‘80s dance movie will always be at the top – told RTE host Ryan Tubridy back in 2020 that he loves the Irish hand drum, ...

Documentary On One: Professor Mel Mercier, Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at University of Limerick, introduces Peadar Mercier, a documentary portrait of his ...

A drama by famous Kerry writer John B Keane played a major role in the bodhrán’s rise from household container to staple of traditional Irish music. The bodhrán is now so synonymous with Irish music ...

There’s an old joke that goes, “What’s the best way to play a bodhrán? With a penknife.” The slag is reputed to have come from the piper Séamus Ennis – infuriated by beginners buying a bodhrán at a ...

Contrary to Seamus Ennis’ much-quoted admonition that the best way to play the bodhrán was with a penknife, this percussion instrument is a much-admired and prominent feature in many Irish traditional ...

Via The Journal Of Music: Cork University Press has recently published Beating Time: The Story of the Irish Bodhrán by Fintan Vallely, a major new study of the instrument with portraits of renowned ...

RURAL Ireland has been hit by an outbreak of goat rustling as animals are picked up by stealth for the lucrative black market in skins to make bodhran hand drums for traditional music groups. One goat ...