Is it just me, or am I noticing that more and more non-Irish people are playing ITM? I know I’m one, since I don’t even come from Irish background.
Is this due to globalization or was it always this way?
Do the people who aren’t irish face discrimination in sessions and stuff?
(I’m not trying to cause discrimination, or arguements or anything. I’m just curious and pretty new to irish music in general)
While my great, great grandfather and grandmother came over from Ireland (on my dad’s side), I’m so far removed from Ireland and mixed with English, Danish, Cherokee, etc. that I’m just me.
I don’t think anyone cares if you’re Irish or not when it comes to playing Irish music - you just have to love the music.
Eric
Do the people who aren’t irish face discrimination in sessions and stuff?
I wouldn’t know myself- I’m not Irish but look it- but I have a harpist friend who is half-Mexican, and looks it, and from what they’ve told me they’ve had issues with discrimination in competitions and such. Not sure about sessions; I know their normal “home” session receives them just fine. Tho there was an incident like that when they were away on a trip. Again, I’m just speaking from anecdote, but I know it’s out there.
If you’re talking about sessions in the US, there are many types: home sessions, casual sessions in local haunts, and organized sessions at a local pub. I can’t imagine anybody being discriminated against because they weren’t Irish. The sessions I’ve been to locally, I doubt if anyone where was Irish. I think you’d have more problems if you went barging into a session trying to play tunes you don’t know, showing a lack of respect for how things are generally run for that session.
I know a couple of non-Irish people who are extremely knowledgeable about ITM and have played for years who’d be welcome (and have been welcomed) in any session, Irish or not (I mean in Ireland or any other place). I think their knowledge of and respect for ITM means much more than their genealogy.
Susan
I go to a session made up predominantly of Irish and English folks. There is always a good amount of good-humoured bashing of each other flying about the room. But other than a few good jabs at us English folks I haven’t heard of any sort of discrimination.
To start with - not a drop of Irish blood here (unless, of course, there is some sort of connection between the Roman designation Scotti and the Irish!) :0 My last name is English, but I’m about 75% Scot . . . or rather, Scot-American (if there is such a thing).
Anyway, I have never been to a session in this country where it was an issue. The issue was usually my playing ability, which, self-admittedly, sucks! I’ve even been to a couple of sessions in N. England and a couple in Scotland where it has never really come up. In fact, at least from my simpleton perspective, it was just the opposite. In England there was a bit of jabbing at the Irish, Scots and Americans. In Edinburgh and Inverness it was a little poking at both the Irish and the English (and me, as an American, in Inverness). In both cases it was ALL in fun though – even when it could have been taken in the wrong way. The key in any culture, if you are trying to play “their” music, seems to be – “Do you love it?” If the answer is a resounding “YES!”, then you’re in good shape. If there happens to be an Ebenezer (since it is Xmas season) at one of those sessions . . . well, hopefully everyone recognizes that person as such. If not, who cares. The world keeps on spinning regardless.
Cheers!
(unless, of course, there is some sort of connection between the Roman designation Scotti and the Irish!)
The the Scots are called so because of the Gaels who invaded Pictia/Scotland from Scotia/Hibernia/Ireland and founded what we know as Scotland (sort of). So that’s where the name came from. The Scots used to live in Ireland, then they went to Pictland, which became Scotland because they lived there now.
Damn right!
Where do all these Americans get off telling us they’re Irish? They’re not! They’re American! And the Ozzies, too. They’re not Irish, they’re Ozzie!
From the PoV of someone born in Ireland, dashed foreigners asserting that they’re Irish sets the teeth on edge. Give over, the lot of yez!
I’ll let you still play Irish music if yez don’t go on about it. 
Arn’t you able to claim Irish citizenship even though you were born outside of Ireland? I’m fairly certain a single Irish parent is all you need to claim citizenship to the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_nationality_law#By_descent
I’m with ya Spoonman - just didn’t want to come right out and say it (and then need to start another thread). 
That’s the case for the highlands and islands. Lowland scots are angles: as germanic as the english.
I’ll pop the corn.
In short: If you have an Irish-born parent, then you have citizenship. If you have an Irish-born grandparent, then you can claim citizenship by application.
I’m a descendant from lands near Ireland. I thinks the tunes must have been carried across the water on the winds…
Better breath tho.
Better breath tho.
But yes yerright Tho the highland and island Scots were originally the Scots proper- the Lowland Scots would still have called themselves English, and did for a while IIRC (the word scot in AS meant “foreigner” sometimes- kinda the opposite process of wealh>welsh I guess). They became Scots later on, by extension you could say.
It all began with the Vikings whose forays and settlements in Hibernia probably gave rise to the first major eruction of red headed children. These were Nords from Norway unlike the Nords from Denmark who made forays into Britain. Rapacious travellers as they were they also brought in some Inuit genes and such like into the session circles of Hibernia.
This thread reminds me of the Father Ted episode where they go into a pub (in the village on their small island off the West coast of Ireland) and you can hear this great session going on, but when you see the session it’s all Chinese people! I think that was the funniest Father Ted episode of all.
But I do have a friend who is a racist when it comes to Irish music. When he sees somebody playing Irish music who is neither Irish nor of Irish descent he complains about it in private.
People all over the world play and enjoy Irish music because it is so accessible. I believe this is because it is the direct ancestor to modern popular music. It’s simple construction makes it infinitely playable and it was created by the people for the people. The worldwide session phenomenon, which is very much like the Jazz and bluegrass/old time jam session, has become the social function of the technical age.
There is in Irish mythology the concept of ‘the 5th province’ a spiritual place of inspiration and creativity. If you resonate with the Irish cultural arts, you can claim citizenship to this province. And so we are all Irish after all.
Long before I started playing ITM, I played lead rock guitar, largely influenced by Brit guitar players, largely influenced by black American guitar players. Didn’t seem to hurt the music, that they weren’t authentic, though there was/is clear differences in their take on the music. Being neither Irish or of Irish descent, I do occasionally feel odd playing purely Irish music, but then, for me it’s about the music, too, and I don’t imagine I’ll replace or alter the truly pure-drop player from Ireland. That said, Irish blood does not make an Irish musician, any more than black blood makes a blues player.