Nicholas Carolan introduces the thirteenth series of 'Come West Along the Road' describing the programme as a mix of "historical performances of Irish traditional instrumental music, song and dance in varying social contexts".

The first item is a piece from 'The Pure Drop' series first shown in September 1990. Séamus Ó Beaglaoich on accordion and Steve Cooney on guitar play polkas for set dancers.

The thirteenth series of 'Come West Along the Road' began broadcasting in 2010. For sixteen years the programme has been researched and presented by Nicholas Carolan who is the Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. The series has shown a wide range of Irish traditional music, song and dance mainly as recorded by RTÉ television.

Nicholas Carolan's introductions provide context not only to the style or background to a traditional piece but often also give information about the original television recording. Since 1961 musicians and dancers were brought into television studios but camera crews also visited streets, pubs, venues and homes around the country to capture tradtional music as it was played and performed.

For thirteen series 'Come West Along the Road' has been compiling and re-presenting Irish traditional music for television viewers. The extract here is from the first episode of the thirteenth series broadcast on 22 October 2010. The piece introduced by Nicholas Carolan is from the series 'The Pure Drop' a programme first broadcast 17 September 1990.

'Come West Along the Road' is Ireland's longest running traditional Irish music television show.

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