Take a bow to Baltimore: a fiddle festival in Ireland that hits the high notes

The Baltimore Fiddle Fair in County Cork attracts musicians from around the world for four days of intense music-making that’s inspired by the region’s spectacular landscape

It’s difficult for things to go quiet in an Irish bar, but right now you can hear a bone button drop. An eight-year-old girl called Aibhlinn is sitting on the floor astride her instrument case playing her squeezebox with rapt concentration, swaying as she gives the opening solo to The South Wind. Along the wall of the bar, a dozen fiddle players have their bows raised ready to charge the minute she finishes.

But she’s in no hurry. This is her moment and she’s taking it. Each time she reaches the end of a musical phrase, there is a respectful pause to see if she’ll start up again – and she does, playing with a determined and mature deliberation. Finally though, she reaches the delicate end of the intro and the fiddlers, led by Eoín O’Sullivan, charge in, followed by the surrounding accordions, guitars and flutes. A harmonica wails. The whole bar feels like it might be taking off.