Beating Time: The Story of the Irish Bodhran

 The Irish frame drum that we know as ‘bodhrán’ first entered modern-day Irish consciousness in 1959 with John B. Keane’s use of a tambourine in his play Sive at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. From 1960 onwards, it gained tremendous visibility in the traditional music revival through Seán Ó Riada’s Radio Éireann ensemble Ceoltóirí Chualann, then by the Chieftains, and, later, by the Bothy Band, Planxty, Christy Moore and De Dannan. By the end of the century, tens of thousands of bodhráns had been made and dispersed worldwide, and the instrument was a staple in traditional music promoted by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Today the drum holds a remarkable symbolic presence not only in Irish music, but also in tourism and in sport, to the extent that it rivals the harp as a national emblem.  

To date there has been no coherent picture of how the bodhrán could appear so suddenly in the twentieth century. Its name is certainly old – a word once used for a device which was created millennia ago as an agricultural tool, a container and tray. But as a percussion form with the sophistication that we know it today its traceable history is short, beginning sporadically only in the earlier 1800s, and mostly happening since c.1960, shaped by ingenious stylists, most of whom are indeed still performing among us.  

Beating Time explores this history for the first time. It radically acknowledges not only the influence of the music trade and British military bands, but that of the touring ensembles that were the roots of today’s popular music – the American ‘blackface’ minstrels.  The study also examines the use of tambourines on the ‘Wren’, and the morphing of this into accompaniment and solo playing in today’s ‘listening’ traditional music. Perhaps most remarkable is the unspoken re-branding of the tambourine as ‘bodhrán’, and its kindling, liberation and validation of the percussion impulse in traditional music. Rather than mythicising the bodhrán as the oldest Irish music instrument, this book points to the idea that it should perhaps be celebrated for being the newest. Its rapid emergence and transformation is as remarkable and astonishing an ascent in universal popularity and international acceptance as has been the worldwide rise of the guitar in all music. 

The Irish frame drum that we know as ‘bodhrán’ first entered modern-day Irish consciousness in 1959 with John B. Keane’s use of a tambourine in his play Sive at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. From 1960 onwards, it gained tremendous visibility in the traditional music revival through Seán Ó Riada’s Radio Éireann ensemble Ceoltóirí Chualann, then by the Chieftains, and, later, by the Bothy Band, Planxty, Christy Moore and De Dannan. By the end of the century, tens of thousands of bodhráns had been made and dispersed worldwide, and the instrument was a staple in traditional music promoted by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Today the drum holds a remarkable symbolic presence not only in Irish music, but also in tourism and in sport, to the extent that it rivals the harp as a national emblem.  

To date there has been no coherent picture of how the bodhrán could appear so suddenly in the twentieth century. Its name is certainly old – a word once used for a device which was created millennia ago as an agricultural tool, a container and tray. But as a percussion form with the sophistication that we know it today its traceable history is short, beginning sporadically only in the earlier 1800s, and mostly happening since c.1960, shaped by ingenious stylists, most of whom are indeed still performing among us.  

Beating Time explores this history for the first time. It radically acknowledges not only the influence of the music trade and British military bands, but that of the touring ensembles that were the roots of today’s popular music – the American ‘blackface’ minstrels.  The study also examines the use of tambourines on the ‘Wren’, and the morphing of this into accompaniment and solo playing in today’s ‘listening’ traditional music. Perhaps most remarkable is the unspoken re-branding of the tambourine as ‘bodhrán’, and its kindling, liberation and validation of the percussion impulse in traditional music. Rather than mythicising the bodhrán as the oldest Irish music instrument, this book points to the idea that it should perhaps be celebrated for being the newest. Its rapid emergence and transformation is as remarkable and astonishing an ascent in universal popularity and international acceptance as has been the worldwide rise of the guitar in all music. 

Fintan Vallely is a musician and writer on traditional music. He was a critic with The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune, and has been a university lecturer on traditional music in Ireland and abroad. He compiled the first-ever tutor for the Irish flute in 1986 (new edition in 2013--The Complete Guide to Playing the Irish flute), and in 2008 published Tuned Out--Traditional Music and Identity in Northern Ireland. Among his numerous edited books is the 1999, 2011 and (t.b.p. 2024) encyclopedia Companion to Irish Traditional Music--which has a related touring show and CD, Compánach, and a DVD, Turas. Just completed is Beating time--the story of the Irish bodhrán, a unique, substantial history of the Irish drum. He is an Adjunct Professor with University College Dublin, and in 2023 was awarded the TG4 lifetime achievement award, Gradam Saol. [www.imusic.ie, www.comitm.com]