While the modern violin is certainly a standardised instrument, its predecessors went through many incarnations that musicians in their time would refer to as a fiddle. Previous to what we would recognise as a violin, a variety of stringed instruments that were bowed did exist in Ireland. These instruments were known as a timpán and tended to have between three and eight strings.The oldest written reference to the fiddle in Ireland is from O’Curry’s 7th Century account of the Fair of Carman, which was a festival held in Kildare roughly every three years.

It was written that there was a plethora of ‘pipes, fiddles, chainmen, Bone-men and tube players.’ The earliest surviving European example of a bowed instrument, complete with a bow, dates from the 11th Century and was excavated in Dublin in the 18th Century.

It wasn’t until the idea of a standardised violin came into existence in Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries that the violin became synonymous with the fiddle within the context of Irish traditional music.

Throughout western Europe, and particularly in Italy, famous luthiers such as Andrea Amati and Antonio Stradivari built the first modern violins and set up schools and apprenticeships regarding their construction. This style spread across Europe and the modern violin found itself being phased into the Irish music sphere. While certain changes were applied to the instrument in the following centuries regarding shoulder and chin rests, the scale length, and the material of the strings. It was in this period we saw the fusion of the modern violin with the fiddle in Ireland and other folk traditions.

It is unknown who exactly introduced the violin to Ireland, with many speculating that it was first introduced by the Scottish during the Ulster Plantation as the violin was already an established instrument in Scottish traditional music by this time. However, the Dubliner John Neal is the first recorded Irish fiddle maker and along with his brother, William, they began making fiddles in Dublin in the 1720s. In fact, Neal’s 1724 publication ‘A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes Proper for the Violin, German Flute or Hautboy’ is possibly the oldest published compilation of Irish music in history.

As the instrument became standardised and commonplace around the country, regional styles began to emerge that helped spur musical change within Irish music and continue the creation of new compositions and ideas. To this day the style of the instrument can change from region to region and indeed from player to player. It remains one of the most popular instruments within Irish traditional music and it would be difficult to find a traditional session going without at least one fiddler.