Fintan Vallely, with performance by sean-nos step dancer Roisin Ni Mhainin

Music is part of Irish life. In the first of a series of 3 lectures, Fintan Vallely, writer of the seminal Companion to Irish Traditional Music and flute player Fintan, looks at traditional music in today's Ireland as a marker of identity in today's Ireland and in Europe, drawing on the traditional art performances as integral to his lecture. On this occasion, he is joined by Roisin Ni Mhainin, sean-nos step dancer, looking at the development of present day practice of the traditional arts, regionally from the 18th century onwards.