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The Craic

The Craic live at The Quiet Man

The craic is an essentially Irish form of enjoyment. It embraces friendliness and hospitality, good conversation, music, dancing, the lively telling of jokes and stories, and the recitation of poetry. Above all, it is about people coming together.

The National Museum recorded The Craic live at The Quiet Man, an Irish pub in Melbourne, for the exhibition Not Just Ned: A true history of the Irish in Australia.

Experience The Craic on YouTube

Click on the links below to visit the Museum's YouTube channel, where you'll hear talented musicians playing, and talking with comedian Jimeoin about their instruments and the influence of Irish music in Australia.

Side profile of Jimeoin.

Jimeoin on The Craic (duration 2:11)
Jimeoin joins a group of talented musicians for a session recorded live at The Quiet Man Irish pub.

Click on the links below to visit the Museum's YouTube channel, where you'll hear talented musicians playing, and talking with comedian Jimeoin about their instruments and the influence of Irish music in Australia.

A man leaning on his accordion sits at the centre of this image. Another man appears in side profile at the left and other musicians sit to the right.

The Fitzgerald brothers on the accordion (duration 1:20)
Listen to Miss McLeod's reel as led by brothers Joe and Paddy Fitzgerald, who've been playing the box for 60 years.
Musicians at play (detail).

Irish flute and dance (duration 1:23)
Jimeoin chats with musicians Ben Stephenson and Michael Moran.

Irish dancers wearing colourful costumes.

Irish dancers (duration 2:36)
A group of young dancers brought together by Geraldine Ryan joins in The Craic.

A group of musicians at play in a pub, with a cameraman at the rear.

Ben Stephenson plays Sally Sloane (duration 2:35)
Ben plays a flute piece by legendary folk musician Sally Sloane, discovered in his research on the history of Irish music at the National Library of Australia.

Musicians seated in roughly circular formation.

Dale Gerner on Billy Moran and the box (duration 1:33)
'We'd sit down, have a cup of tea, have a yarn and just play some tunes together.'

Fiddle and bow (detail).

The oral tradition of Irish music (duration 2:43)
Nicki Kramer puts the groove into fiddling and explains how Irish music is learned through listening.

Irish dance performance.

Soft to hard toe shuffle (duration 5:42)
Spot the hot shoe shuffle as this group of young Irish dancers swap from soft to hard toes.

Group of people gathered in a pub (detail)

How to play spoons with Mark Wilson (duration 3:23)
'Well it's very easy, you just hold 'em between two fingers and go rat-a-tee-tat,' chancer Mark Wilson jams with Jimeoin, and John Blaney on the tin whistle.

Two men sit playing a bodhran and uillean pipes.

Ned of the Hill on Irish uillean pipes (duration 4:53)
Martin Doherty plays the uillean pipes and explains how they differ to the Scottish bagpipes.

Two men sit side by side, one resting on the bodhran in his lap.

How to play the bodhrán (duration 2:20)
Aidan McDonnell explains the finer points of playing the traditional Irish drum.

A dancing woman with a green and red scarf draped around her neck.

Irish dance and drum (duration 1:34)
Ben Stephenson on bodhrán joins Dale Gerner as she dances up a storm.

An accordion player sits at the microphone in a pub.

Poor Ned Kelly (duration 3:38)
Former Bushwacker Mick Slocum takes the microphone.

Filming at The Quiet Man slideshow

The Craic live at the Quiet Man was produced and filmed by the National Museum in Melbourne in late 2010. View a slideshow of Chris Joiner's behind the scenes images, from the filming of Live at the Quiet Man.

Five men sit playing instruments, from left, guitar, flute, bodhran, uillean pipes and accordion.
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