The affinity between Irish traditional lyric and musical forms and those of Scotland, England and Wales (not to mention North America) should surprise no one. Irish traditional song reflects the cultural cross-currents and historical conflicts that have long linked Ireland and the British Isles. Their respective song, instrumental, and dance forms are closely entwined, and share much with their analogues elsewhere in Europe and America. So what makes Irish traditional music Irish, and for that matter, what might distinguish it as Celtic?
No full-blown discussion of the connotations of “Celtic” is possible here, either in historical terms (the Bronze Age civilizations of Europe – known mostly through archaeological evidence – that gave way in the early Christian era to Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Viking occupations), or vis-à-vis persistent Celtic cultural and linguistic manifestations in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany and America.