Forgive me if this has already been asked, but a while back on one of the threads someone said that the bodhran wasn’t used in Irish music before the sixties. As an ignorant paddy I had always assumed it was a traditional instrument - to be fair none of the old fellahs in my family play it (we all stamp along to the rhythm) but how did the bodhrain become popular, and where did it come from?
Forgive my ignorance!
Callybeg
Before the 60s, the bodhrán was mainly used by the wren boys who used go from house to house on St Stephen’s day.
John B Keane’s play “Sive” gave it its first real visibility (audibility?) to the wider world, but it was really Ceoltóirí Cualann and above all their avatar The Chieftains who turned it into a weapon of mass destruction.
If you put it (as spelt above, but without the accent) into a search engine together with the word “history”, you should get quite a few threads here. You could also do the same thing with a Google search.
Galway flute player Tom Morrison recorded at least one 78 with tambourine player John Reynolds. Some of Packie Dolan’s records have bodhran, too. So, it dates back to the 20s at the very least, although not in widespread use.
I never heard it nor of it in Ireland before the Cheektans.
Mindya it could have laid dormant,
like the stuff now being rediscovered in certain parts and
places, but kept secret by the Irish version of the Scottish silly handshakers.
Maybe the man who brought it back in Mulligar all those years ago
had a job with CIE and was already
a member of CCE and the rest, maybe
Mad Baloney got to him threatening
‘penal abdication’ if he did not
make tha Jackeens - Paddy and the
rest of them - famous? Maybe the ould genius made the whole thing up?
About the Tamborines in Ireland. In case you hadn’t noticed there are Tinkers all over the country- in your language Gypsies- and these folks travel overseas a lot. So the
handheld drum was long in use but never claimed by anyone to be
uniquely Irish.
Tom Morrison can be heard in the company of John Reynolds (Tambourine) playing the reels set ‘Dunmore Lasses/Manchester Reel (AKA’The Galway Rambler)/Castlebar Traveler’ on the fascinating compilation album ‘From Galway to Dublin’.
As the jingling is intermittant,the sleevenotes suggest that the metal jangles were attached to crossbars,rather than the drum body.John Reynolds was originally from Drumsna,Leitrim.
The recording,made in New York, dates from september 1927.
I’ve never met a Tinker yet who liked being called a Gypsy - in English or Irish. It’s a good way to get your ears boxed if you ever want to try it! 
However, it’s a good point about the relationship to tambourines - that I hadn’t thought of. So it seems the bodhrain has been around a while, but not used in session music. I have read that ancient bodhrains keep turning up in old bog land etc, which is why I was so puzzled that they only came to prominence in the 60’s. Why bother having an Irish word for an instrument that was never played?
And just as a matter of interest, what on earth are “the bones” - a few people say they play them, and again, in my ignorance, I haven’t got a clue.
Callybeg.
Callybeg, one theory is that the bodhrán was originally a skin tray that became a drum by default…as good a theory for its antiquity as any, I suppose. Many a bodhrán in the past was made out of the frames of garden sieves, too, as I understand.
As for the bones (and spoons), run away. Run far, far away. 
bones: naturally curved, dried and polished, rib bones (cow, I guess?) held in one hand and smacked together by lever action between the fingers. I think they’re wonderful and give variety in your rhythmic accompaniment. When you first learn em, you can do triplets quite easy but it gets tricky to set up other kinds of rhythms. There are master players of the bones, probably some in Ireland but for sure in the Appalachians, especially West Virginia, I have been told.
Not one for me then. I’d bury the poor bones and say a prayer for them! And I can’t stand the spoons. Run away! (Respect to those that play them though, just not near me.
Callybeg
Just for the record, the term “tinker” is regarded as pejorative in Ireland.
“Traveller” is the accepted value-neutral term. The Irish travellers call themselves Pavees, and there’s an organisation cum resource centre in Dublin called Pavee](http://www.paveepoint.ie/pav_home_a.html%22%3EPavee) Point if anyone wants to know more about them.
My bones were split from the shinbone of an ox, cut to size and carved or machined smooth and shiny.
I took almost 6 months to carve a slight dimple that I could feel in the dark for the proper placement of movable bone’s sweet spot. I can get sounds from a tiny tikitty-tikitty to an ear splitting clacking that could ruin a session.
At all the sessions I have attended, there has always someone with bohran and someone else with bones that would never let any tune person have a go at some good rhythm for a switch. 
Waltzes and O’Carolan tunes seemed very popular at those…
All things to moderation, as usual.
Just a quick note to thank you Roger for the website - an excellent education. And I will not be calling Travellers Tinkers anymore! Unfortunately I picked that one up from my Granny, who didn’t used it in a pejorative way - however I should have gathered from the way a lot of others use the term that it is racist. Thanks for opening my eyes!
Callybeg
Oddly enough, Johnny Doherty the legendary Donegal fiddler was a travelling tinsmith, but I don’t think anyone ever thought of calling him a tinker!
I must explore the Pavee Point site more fully, but I don’t recall seeing anything much there about the travellers’ rich heritage in traditional music. It may be that the people involved are not familiar with the background, but - without being patronising - it seems to me that it would be good for the self-esteem of the present generations of travellers and for respect for them among settled people if this received more prominence.