Billy Mag Fhloinn is a native of Limerick, Ireland. He holds a PhD in Irish Folklore, and a B.A. in archaeology, from University College Dublin. As well as lecturing and tutoring at university, he occasionally works in television and media, and makes and plays replicas of prehistoric musical instruments from Ireland. He also plays traditional music on the bouzouki, and is a tutor with the Online Academy of Irish Music.

Billy is one of the few living people who play and make the Bronze Age Irish Horns that were revived by Simon O’Dwyer in the 1980’s. A member of Ireland’s Bronze Age recreation society ‘Umha Aois’, Billy built his own replica of an Iron Age-style trumpet and can be heard playing it in the clip posted here. This is an experiment with four tracks, as the surviving Iron Age trumpet of Loughnashade was one of four identical instruments recovered from the lake near the mythic and archaeological site of Emhain Macha. Evidently, this type of instrument was meant to be played in concert with each other.