Sean-Nós, Arabic Music, and Bob Quinn’s Atlantic Theory
by Daniel Finn
This one gets pretty weird. Let me know if I have gone too far.
What region do you think this sound comes from? I didn't pick Europe. It's called sean-nós (shan-nohss), meaning "old style" in Irish Gaelic.
I came across sean-nós music and was shocked that it came from Irish heritage. Traditional Irish music is usually framed as something isolated from the rest of the world. A guy called Bob Quinn has been challenging that idea.
Through his Atlantic theory, Quinn argued that Ireland’s west coast shared centuries of contact with Spain, North Africa, and the wider Mediterranean world. But his focus was not conquest or direct lineage. It was the movement of people through trade routes, migration, fishing paths, and coastal exchange.
In Quinn’s view, the Atlantic functioned more like a corridor than a barrier.
A lot of his work focused on cultural similarities between western Ireland and North Africa. Architecture, oral storytelling, farming traditions, and music all appear in his research. The musical side became one of the most discussed parts of the theory.
Quinn pointed toward sean-nós singing in particular. The ornamentation, free rhythm, long vocal phrasing, and modal feel all share similarities with North African and Arabic vocal traditions. Similar comparisons between sean-nós and Arabic vocal traditions have been made by Irish musicians and composers for decades.
None of this proves traditional Irish music "came from" Arabic music. Quinn’s work remains controversial and many historians reject parts of his theory. But the similarities are difficult to ignore once you hear them side by side.
Part 2 will look more closely at the musical links themselves.