# REDIRECT Donegal fiddle tradition

The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle fiddle that is traditional in County Donegal, Ireland.

Modern Donegal fiddle music is often played in concerts and recorded on albums.

Like other areas on the western seaboard of Ireland, Donegal has a distinctive fiddle tradition which is of world renown.

Examples include the Sliabh Luachra and Donegal fiddle traditions.

The band's singer and fiddle player Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh released her début album Imeall at Scoil Gheimridh Frankie Kennedy in County Donegal, Ireland on 28 December 2008 and worldwide in 2009.

Counties Donegal and Antrim are well known for songs of speed, much like Donegal fiddle playing.

Today, Mairéad is recognised as the leading exponent in the Donegal fiddle style, and she is often considered as one of the foremost singers in the Irish language, her native tongue.

She attended Loreto Community School in Milford, County Donegal and then moved away to attend college wanting to become a classical pianist, continuing her studies in music and also studying watercolour painting.

Donegal is also well known for its songs which have, like the instrumental music, a distinctive sound.

Donegal musical artists such as the bands Clannad and Altan and solo artist Enya, all from Gaoth Dobhair, have had international success with traditional or traditional flavoured music.

Donegal music has also influenced people not originally from the county including folk and pop singer Paul Brady.

She later taught music at Holy Cross College in Falcarragh, County Donegal.

Mazurkas constitute a distinctive part of the traditional dance music of County Donegal, Ireland.

In this adaptation The Happy Prince is an exciting and beautiful performance of music and storytelling with a Donegal theme exploring the timeless themes of love, friendship and compassion.

Frankie Kennedy, as a young musician from Belfast, used to travel to Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal on his summer holidays, learning Irish and playing traditional Irish music.

Ní Mhaonaigh learned the Donegal-style of fiddle-playing from her father, however, Donegal music was little known outside of the county at the time.

A winter school of music is now held in Gweedore, County Donegal each year in honour of co-founder Frankie Kennedy, The Frankie Kennedy Winter Music School.

Along with the 1980s came Donegal group Clannad who were, at the time, innovators in bridging the gap between pop rock music and traditional Irish music.

This geographic ' isolation ' from the rest of the Republic has led to Donegal people maintaining a distinct cultural identity and has been used to market the county with the slogan Up here it's different.

The River Erne, along with other Donegal waterways, has been dammed to produce hydroelectric power.

The existence of this border, cutting Donegal off from her natural hinterlands in Derry City and West Tyrone, has greatly exacerbated the economic difficulties of the county since partition.

Donegal County Council ( which has officially been in existence since 1899 ) has responsibility for local administration, and is headquartered at the County House in Lifford.

Donegal Irish has a strong influence on learnt Irish across Ulster.

Donegal has a long literary tradition in both Irish and English.

In modern Irish Donegal has produced famous, and sometimes controversial, authors such as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna from The Rosses and the contemporary ( and controversial ) Irish-language poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh from Gortahork in Cloughaneely, and where he is known to locals as Gúrú na gCnoc (' the Guru of the Hills ').

Although approximately 85 % of its population is Catholic, County Donegal also has a sizeable Protestant minority.

People from Donegal has also contributed to culture elsewhere.

The Donegal Gaeltacht has traditionally been a very popular destination each summer for young people from Northern Ireland.

There are numerous other clubs in Donegal, but none has achieved the status of Finn Harps.

Although at political odds with the Republic of Ireland, he has some religious followers in two counties ( County Donegal and County Monaghan ).

The Donegal ( or Tyrconnell ) Gaeltacht ( or Gaeltacht Thír Chonaill ) has a population of 24, 744 ( Census 2011 ) and represents 25 % of the total Gaeltacht population.

The town was named either after a small town in County Donegal, Ireland, a suburb of Belfast of the same name in County Antrim, or Greencastle, County Down or possible in consideration of all as the local area has place names of both County Antrim and County Donegal and was settled by Scotch-Irish settlers.

Donegal has an elementary school for its children and for the children of several other area communities.

Musician Caoimhín Mac Aoidh has written a book on the subject, From Mazovia to Meenbanad: The Donegal Mazurkas, in which the history of the musical and dance form is related.

Availability of TV3 in some rural areas has been limited as TV3 have failed to invest in relay stations for most notably in County Donegal, County Kerry and County Cork.

The cliff path has panoramic views across the Strand and Downhill with Donegal in the background.

As the main commercial centre of north Donegal, Letterkenny also has a host of financial service institutions, legal firms and small businesses.

In 1996, a man who had been seen in Dublin wearing her photograph around his neck, stabbed himself after being ejected from her parents ' pub in Gweedore, County Donegal.

Prime Ministers Callaghan and Blair have been amongst the many in Britain of part-Irish ancestry, with Blair's mother coming from County Donegal.

Authors in Donegal have been creating works, like the Annals of the Four Masters, in Gaelic and Latin since the Early Middle Ages.

Many people travel to Donegal for the superb golf links — long sandy beaches and extensive dune systems are a feature of the county, and many links courses have been developed.

The seaside resort of Bundoran, located in the very south of the county, along with nearby Rossnowlagh, have been ' reborn ' as the centre of surfing in County Donegal.

He had already been created Viscount Alexander of Tunis, of Errigal in the County of Donegal, on 1 March 1946, and was made Baron Rideau, of Ottawa and of Castle Derg in the County of Tyrone, at the same time he was given the earldom.

The eldest of a family of eleven, Blaney's father Neal had been a commander of the Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) in Donegal during the War of Independence and the Civil War.

He had previously represented Donegal Borough in the Irish House of Commons and had already been created Viscount Sudley, of Castle Gore in the County of Mayo, in 1758, and Baron Saunders, of Deeps in the County of Wexford in 1758, in the Peerage of Ireland.

He had already been created Baron Lifford, of Lifford in the County of Donegal, in 1768, also in the Peerage of Ireland.

The first turf, which had been transported from County Donegal, was laid by Irish patriot Michael Davitt and planted with shamrocks.

De Valera had good relations with the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain and not only had been able to gain British recognition of the new constitution, but had negotiated the return of the Treaty Ports ( three Irish ports – the coastal defences at Cobh Harbour and Bere Island in Co. Cork, and Lough Swilly in Co. Donegal that had remained under British jurisdiction after the Treaty ), and resolved their economic differences.

When the Irish punt replaced the British pound sterling in County Donegal in 1928, many Irish banks that had been previously located in Derry ( in the new Northern Ireland ) opened branches in Letterkenny.

After been relegated to Division 4 last season, they reached the Lory Meagher Cup Final in Croke Park on July 3, 2010 and won on a score line of Longford 1-20 to Donegal 1-12.

His family had been landlords in Inishowen in County Donegal since Elizabethan times, but lost their property after passage of the Irish Land Act in 1882.

In some of the cases of counties Donegal and Tyrone this would have been the middle of Lifford Bridge.

He also served as Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone from 1917 until his death, having previously been a Deputy Lieutenant for County Donegal.

By this point the sons of his first wife had been disabled or killed, mostly by his Scottish-born second wife the Ineen Dubh ( pronounced in County Donegal as ' Ineen Doo ').

The construction of the RTÉ mast in the 1990s was controversial for a number of reasons, one of them being that the allocated television frequencies ( which had been reserved and known for some time ) interfered with then-unlicenced relay broadcasts of British television channels in parts of County Donegal.

The Irish Department of Finance website confirmed on 22 March 2007 that £ 400 million had been set aside for Northern investment to include a dual carriageway to Derry and Donegal.