Tomás O'Canainn is one of Ireland's foremost Uillean piper and formerly singer with traditional music trio Na Fili. In this enlightening book he gives his exhaustive insight into the real meaning of Irish traditional music. The emphasis of this book is to discuss the present state of Irish music, but it also contains extensive and illuminating research on the history and techniques of traditional styles. O'Canainn explores the influence of traditional instruments and selected performers, and includes many musical examples along with song lyrics, background and translations which accompany the text and remove the technical complexity.