THE Belfast Traditional Music Trail grants those taking part access to Belfast's wealth of traditional music complete with two professional musicians as your guides as they treat you to Belfast's rich musical tradition and history.

Beginning in An Dara Fidil – The Second Fiddle – we were introduced to the basics of traditional music and taught how to recognise some core components of the music including how to identify, and tap along to a jig, reel and slipjig. 

Our musicians and tour guides, Teresa Clarke on fiddle and Maria Rafferty on flute, explained the ancient origins of Irish music, from the ancient Gaelic harpists who served as prestigious members of the courts of Gaelic Ireland as well as the record keepers of genealogy and lore.

We were given a basic introduction into the musical instruments which make up Irish traditional music and how many instruments have been co-opted into our playing including the banjo, guitar and fiddle, alongside our native instruments such as the harp, Uilleann pipes and bodhrán. Maria also showed her flute which was a unique London Keys flute made in 1832.

From here we were joined by other musicians on bodhrán and banjo and had the opportunity to take part in a céilí whilst trying to identify if the tunes we were being played were either a reel, jig or slipjig. Fortunately everyone involved appeared to be fast learners and the music was soon flowing.

The next part of the tour included a trip through town passing some sites famous in Belfast's trad scene including the old Assembly Rooms on Waring Street where Irish music was saved from destruction by the writing down of the last of the harper's ancient tunes by a Presbyterian organist and friend of Henry Joy McCracken, Edward Bunting, who was a mere 19-years-old when he annotated the works in Belfast's famous 1792 Harp Festival.

GUIDES: Our tour guides, flutist Maria Rafferty and fiddler Teresa Clarke
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GUIDES: Our tour guides, flutist Maria Rafferty and fiddler Teresa Clarke

Our excellent tour guides Maria and Teresa explained that colonial authorities had implemented a number of measures to ban and degrade harping to such an extent that the participants were all over 50 years of age, many were blind and with the exception of a 15-year-old boy and one, Donnchadh Ó hÁmsaigh from Derry, who was 96, blind with long crooked fingernails and a growth on his head which appeared as if he had two heads. Nevertheless, without these forgotten players and the annotations of Bunting, Ireland's harping tradition would have been lost.

Following this we entered McHugh's bar and were treated to another brilliant session after hearing about the works of blind rake and harping legend Turlough O'Carolan who composed much of the basis of Ireland's famous traditional airs. We also got to watch a showcase of brilliant Irish dancing to accompany the music which ended with a traditional session.

The Belfast Traditional Music Trail was an insightful and brilliant journey into our city's rich musical heritage, taken by wonderful tour guides who really know their history and music and is a must-do for anyone interested in traditional music or the history of Belfast.

Belfast Traditional Music Trail is organised by An Droichead. Tours last approximately 2.5 hours and can booked here.