Just out of curiosity, how many of you players/students of Irish Traditional Music have lived in Ireland, studied in Ireland, participated in sessions in Ireland, performed Irish Traditional Music in Ireland? How many of you consider yourselves knowledgable about the Tradition, and where did your knowledge come from if not directly from personal experience within Ireland?
Just out of curiosity, why are you asking?
Stevie,
I find it fascinating how many people outside of Ireland are interested in Irish Traditional Music- especially if it has little or nothing to do with their own cultural roots or experience. As a teacher of Irish Traditional Music, I am always interested in why people are attracted to this tradition, how they aquire their knowledge of it and on what do they base their opinions regarding the tradition.
I am teaching at an Irish Music Camp in Winnipeg this weekend and of the 30+ students of Irish music, only a couple can claim to have Irish blood - usually 2 or 3 generations back.
I’m pure-blood Brazilian. Haven’t been to Ireland yet, but hope to make it there one day (do i get to add Al-Hadj to my name then? or only if i kiss the Blarney stone?). No Irish blood at all, that i know of. Mostly Portuguese, some German and a little English, inevitably some Native Brazilian and African too. B positive. Red. Iron, Caffeine and alcohol. The usual stuff.
Knowledgeable? More than i’ve been, but less than i’d like to be.
How? By any means necessary, including reading, playing, listening, asking, cheating, stealing and spending way too much money and time.
Why? I just love the stuff. I’m a flute player, and i think the Irish tradition is one of the great flute traditions of the world. The Indian is probably the other one, but i know comparatively much less about it.
Okay, so here`s a wee self-indulgent bio for you all.
I actually got into Scottish music first. There happened to be a very good piper in the town where I went to high school, so at the age of 16, I started on Highland pipes and whistle. Began playing flute at 18 and I also started studying Scottish Gaelic around this time (which I got interested in after meeting Anna Murray, a fantastic piper and Gaelic singer). I spent a semester at Glasgow University and later a summer living and occasionally working in Dingle, Co. Kerry. Started playing uilleann pipes at 22. When I was in Dingle trying to pick up a bit of Irish, I was sometimes mistaken for a Scotsman. The idea of an American speaking Irish with a Scottish accent strikes me as kinda funny…
Now Im 25 and can hardly believe I have been involved in this music for almost 10 years. I have been fortunate to have played with and learned from some very well known and talented musicians and many other musicians who perhaps arent so well known but deserve to be.
Anyway, when I tell people about all this stuff, usually the first thing they say is "Oh, so youre trying to get back to your roots?" Nope. I have some Irish and Scottish background, but that wasnt really an issue for me. I play it because I love it and sometimes I think my love for this stuff comes from the fact that I am not of it. I am a foreign admirer. Most of my Scottish and Irish friends dont care for trad. music at all and if I had grown up there, perhaps I wouldnt have cared for it much either. Anyway, I digress…As someone else on this board mentioned, this music belongs to anyone who really loves and appreciates it. But anyway, there you go. That`s how I got involved in playing Irish music and I consider myself very lucky.
What Glauber said pretty much summed it up for me.
Except that it would be much more convenient for me to take up Indian flute if I wanted to… 
I remember that my dad was listening to some quebecois folk music when I was four years old, and I could sit for hours listening to the stuff. Only many years later when I was sitting in a pub for the first time it kinda all came back to me. I still remember listening to “St-Anne’s Reel” and it was like 24 years ago, it’s hard to believe!
I’m not sure if I am interested in irish music because I was being brainwashed with folk music when I was young, or if it’s just a “natural interest”, but one way or the other it’s a real passion now.
About Ireland, I’ve been three times, the last two trips were about three months each, and the last one doesnt really count 
This year is my third Willie Week, but I’m not sure if it’s really that good for the music, as you can hear bad stuff too…
I usually spend a couple of weeks a year in Ireland, but don’t get to many sessions. My mum’s from Cork, so the time is spent visiting numerous relatives around southern Ireland. Studied in Ireland? Not really unless you count Willie Clancy festival. I have both performed and played there.
I would not consider myself knowledgable. My getting into it is probably something similar to Azalin - brainwashed when young (interestingly by my non-irish father), and I was easiest to teach when it came to the whistle (my sisters weren’t too keen on it!). I base my opinions (and I think I’m fairly open-minded) on the music I hear.
I spent a previous life in Ireland. My soul remembers the music.
Perfectly stated.
The stuff’s in my bones. I remember making up tunes as a youngster in a usually mixolydian mode (still my favorite), although the only “Celtic” musical exposure I really had was the GHPs and my mother’s hackneyed -though Irish- lullabyes. As real Irish/Scots music was otherwise unavailable in the predominantly German-descended communities in which I was reared, the next best thing to listen to was from the Renaissance and earlier. Needless to say I was seen as weird by my playmates. Nowadays it’s cool. Go figure.
Haven’t been to the Auld Sod yet. All my musical friends keep telling me to go there. Then, like Glauber, I could append “al-Hajj” to my name. 
(good one, Senhor Ribeiro!)
I’ve been across the pond twice now…once for Willie Week and once in the offseason, sort of rambling around in search of music. Spent time in Dublin, Tralee, Dingle, Cork, Kilkenny, and Wicklow the second time around.
Gotta go up into Galway/Mayo/Sligo next time, maybe Donegal if there’s time.
It’s a lot easier for those of us in the UK to go over to Ireland or indeed to play music regularly with Irish exiles over here. They usually make regular trips home as well so we get much more of a feeling of regular contact - to some extent it even rubs off on those who don’t actually go over that often themselves.
Playing sessions with some of the lads round North Clare, South/East Galway has done a power of good for my own playing over the years. You can’t really get the true feeling in isolation. Sort of sounds elitist but it’s not meant to be.
Ken
Okay. . .
No Irish heritage – I’m I second generation Russian Jew with all four grandparents making the journey. Musically I was raised primarily with show tunes and Burl Ives/summer camp sort of ‘folk music’. I came to the Irish tradition via New England Contradance music, and a varied interest in Zydeco, Cape Breton fiddle music, Highland piping.
Our first trip to Ireland was not planned around music at all, but we found a session and were enthralled by the social aspect of it, and how it was a community event. On returning from vacation we stumbled on a session near our home, and became immersed in the music since then. Its been about three years, and including that first journey, three trips to Co.s Cork, Sligo and Clare, with side trips to the surrounding counties.
I am far from knowledgeable on the topic. I would call myself only ‘conversant’. Though I’ve played a tune or two (literally…I don’t think I’ve ever played more than two tunes) in sessions in Ireland, I wouldn’t say I’m skilled.
I know exactly what you mean, Ken. We’re lucky to have a bunch of old timers here in Chicago, mostly from Mayo, Sligo, Galway, and Clare. They’re great company. They’re tickled to have an opportunity to share their music with people who come to it with the right mix of humility and dedication.
I spent the pas four hours playing with Kitty Hayes swapping tunes, eating sandwiches dirnking tea and working on new stuff to play together. That does for me on the experience front.