Madam, – John Kavanagh (June 18th) heard his first vuvuzela in Dublin last Sunday. The media buzz, including him and your complaining correspondents (June 16th), utterly ignored the vuvuzela’s probable Irish invention and origins.
A strikingly similar bronze horn is one of the oldest known musical instruments from Ireland, dating from the later bronze Age (1200-500 BC). Then, it may have been used in the rites of a fertility cult associated with the bull, as alluded to in the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley). The Irish later modified it with a curve, as seen in the Loughnashade Trumpet (100 BC).
Like now, it was apparently useful for its unnerving effect when blown before battle. – Yours, etc,