Drums+in+Ireland

Members of AACORN might be interested in a BBC radio programme first broadcast in 2006 as part of a six programme series - Radio Ballads 2006 - which paid tribute to the pioneering work of the original Radio Ballads, which changed the face (or sound) of broadcasting some 40 years previously. One programme in the 2006 series, 30 years of Conflict, looked at the role that music played in the sectarian "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, and the way it stimulated the peace effort. The programme won an award and features some fine songs written by local songwriters (very much "front-line" stuff) and internationally known "folk" songwriters. One song in particular, which you can listen to on the programme website set with interviews, Different Drums, addresses the symbolic significance of two different types of drum - the Lambeg (the big [36"] double sided bass-style marching drum played on its side vertically with two curved malacca cane sticks) for the Protestants, and the Bodhran, the smaller [15-18"] single sided drum played with one double-headed oak or similar stick for the Catholics. People could be killed for having the wrong drum in the wrong area.[I played in a folk-rock band that toured Derry in 1980, the mid-period of the Troubles, and featured a little of my bodhran playing on a couple of songs. We had no idea that this might be an issue as we went down really well until we played a Protestant club - not an experience I would be keen to repeat!] An organization, Different Drums, now promotes peace and reconciliation through music by playing both drums together in musical performances internationally, based on the principle that "if we can learn to play together harmoniously, maybe we can learn to live together harmoniously". The radio ballads site for the programme songs is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/2006/ireland/songs.shtml You can't hear the full programmes any more, but I have a set of recordings if you are really keen. The different drums site, with videos, is at http://www.differentdrums.info/index.htm I spent quite a bit of time in Northern Ireland and Eire in the 1980s, and met some lovely people on both sides, for whom musical could be both a source of deep division and a coming together. Lambeg skins (goat) have always been recognised for their excellent quality and in recent years have been used for top quality bodhrans - a fine example of a musical reconciliation. Steve Linstead
 * Drums and politics in Northern Ireland**