I received the following from a friend (who is incidentally a bodhran player) and pass it on with no comment :- " I was reading a book about folk-life in the Mizzen, West Cork - the glossary of Irish Terms included the word bohrán: a cow-pat, so now I know everything, what eegit started mis spelling it with a ‘d’? "
Who came up with the idea of hitting sh** with a stick as a form of accompaniment ?
I was just about to type a very politically incorrect answer concerning one of Shakespeare’s more famous plays, but then thought better of it! Zubivka would never forgive me.
Everything about early Irish culture points to it being based around ownership of cattle (bo), and you will find references to cattle all through the Irish language, e.g. buachail for boy literally translates as cow-boy. From this we can then speculate that Irish dance originated in the need to avoid cow-pats, and those who failed and hit the cow-pat had to provide rhythmic accompaniment by beating it with a stick. Its all very logical. 
djm
So Tipper Gore’s a sh*t-stick! Who knew?
There was a session where we were provided with dinner rolls of extremely, how shall I say, adamant crust. I put the bodhránaí up to playing one, and it worked surprisingly well. Why she blamed me for the crumbs all over her is beyond me.
…this profound revelvation of yours is, to put it simply, quite staggering. 
Ella Fitzgerald, my dear Whatsit.
djm