The modern Irish keyless flute was developed in the 1970s — based on the old 8-key wooden flute that was popular until the invention of the metal Boehm flute in the late 19th century.
When classical players started to adopt the Boehm flute, the market was flooded with cheap wooden flutes, many purchased by Irish musicians who developed a completely new style of playing — influenced by the uilleann pipes — and took advantage of the wooden flute's ability to allow rapid ornamentation and slides between notes.
By the mid 1970s these antique instruments became increasingly rare, so instrument-makers began to produce new instruments that were even more suited to traditional Irish music — generally losing the keys altogether.
In recent years the Irish flute has been adopted by musicians from other regional traditions and is particularly common in the Breton, Galician and Asturian traditions.
Flute players featured in The Pure Drop:
