Irish Music

Every time we turned on the radio in the car the same songs played over and over again. Amongst the most popular were Rihanna's ‘Umbrella’, Enrique Iglesias’ ‘Ping Pong Song’, and Fergie’s ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry.’ The Irish seemed to really enjoy this aspect of American culture. Then there is U2. Although not a whole lot of U2 was played on the radio, you could more than often hear it playing in the background of many establishments. A couple of stores and bars just had a U2 CD blasting over their loudspeakers. Traditional Irish music was a giant part of the nightlife. Walking the streets of Temple Bar many Irish bands were jamming for what seemed to be ever growing crowds. Inside the pubs, a couple of Irishmen would be entertaining the patrons with their selections of traditional Irish music. The atmosphere was brightened by an accordion and a banjo or a guitar and a Irish drum. Then the performers tried to invite others to join the show by coming up and singing a song. We were even lucky enough to enjoy the Irish dancing of one older over-served pub goer, who seemed strangely leprechaun-like. I was quite interested to learn that where we were listening to music seemed to determine exactly what were we listening to.