About the Instrument Hub

Ireland is known for its great concerts, festivals, world-class performers and warm, enthusiastic audiences. A vital and vibrant part of our culture, music contributes more than €700 million to the Irish economy annually. However, making a career as a professional musician is tough. It is extremely competitive and finding a suitable instrument alone can leave musicians in debt for years, if not decades. Almost as daunting can be the process of starting out on the road to learning an instrument, with many decisions to navigate around quality, cost and even whether to buy or hire a first musical instrument.

The Music Network Instrument Hub aims to support Ireland's musicians by bringing together information on funds and opportunities into one easy-to-search location. Meanwhile, we are also researching and developing new ways to help reduce the financial burden that comes with finding a suitable instrument.

Our Find an Instrument database offers information on the many ways to access musical instruments in Ireland. Searchable by instrument, musician level, activity and location, it provides information on almost 200 organisations including music schools providing instrument hire with tuition, instrument lending banks, instrument makers and repair specialists, instrument bursaries, music tuition bursaries and scholarships, instrument shops, group performance opportunities, and more.

Our Resource Hub also provides lots of helpful information to guide parents, music students, music groups and performers of all styles of music through the process of selecting and investing in musical instruments.

In addition to highlighting and promoting existing opportunities for accessing musical instruments in Ireland, we are planning new programmes to address the need for instrument provision for particular sectors of the community, with an initial focus on instruments for older people.

Find out how you can help support musicians in Ireland today.