Irish folk music is enjoying a revival

A PARTICULAR IDEA of Ireland’s traditional music is fixed in the global imagination. You may have seen it play out in “The Banshees of Inisherin”, an Oscar-nominated film: as locals quaff Guinness, beaming men and women play lightning-fast reels on fiddles and bodhráns in the firelit snug of a cosy pub. There is some truth to this image, says Charles Hendy, even though the easy-going boozy “session” is not a home-grown concept, but one that originated among Irish emigrants in England.

The jolly scene also obscures the dynamism of Irish music in the 21st century, he adds, as folk artists are producing new and inventive interpretations of the genre. Lankum—a band whose extraordinary new album, “False Lankum”, was released on March 24th—share a sternness and asceticism with experimental music. (“Go Dig My Grave”, the opening track on the album, is a nearly nine-minute drone.) The Gloaming, a supergroup formed by Irish folk legends, accompanied by Thomas Bartlett, an American pianist and producer, have taken their music into concert halls. Ye Vagabonds use clever vocals to revive traditional songs in careful and gorgeous fashion; The Mary Wallopers (pictured top), Mr Hendy’s band, play a ferocious, all-energy version of the music.