Deirdre Ní Chonghaile | New York University (original) (raw)

Deirdre Ní Chonghaile

Research blog: http://www.aransongs.blogspot.ie/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aransongs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AranSongs

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS INCLUDE:

* Historiography of Irish traditional music and song, primarily in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in particular documentation and dissemination, music collectors and music-collecting

* The transnational practice of the Irish language and its cultural legacy among the diaspora, migrants, and those at home in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on the transatlantic network of Irish-language song scholarship by native speakers, language activists, and language learners, featuring Irish-language speakers in fin-de-siècle North America, many of whom emigrated in the Famine and post-Famine period, and investigating the significance of their songs and singing.

* Amhráin Árann - Aran Songs is a bilingual project that aims to publish an edition of songs composed in Aran - supported by accompanying CDs/mp3s and by a partner website - and to enable the people of Aran to preserve these endangered songs and to create easy access to them.

* The music, song, and dance of the Aran Islands, Co. Galway, and on Ireland's other offshore islands

FORTHCOMING BOOK:

* Collecting Music in Ireland presents new readings of some familiar sources and introduces some other, entirely new sources relating to traditional music in the Aran Islands. It renders a new paradigm in which to interpret music collections and the activities of the people who create them and offers an interdisciplinary reappraisal of some of the narratives that have dominated Irish traditional music for decades.

"exhaustive research... a landmark contribution to our understanding of the rich musical traditions of the Aran Islands."
- Committee for 2010 Adele Dalsimer Prize for Distinguished Dissertation in Irish Studies by the American Conference for Irish Studies

"an astonishingly thorough, insightful, and readable accomplishment."
- Prof James P. Leary, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"detailed and thought-provoking... a fascinating read, very well written."
- Dr John S. O'Neill, Cambridge University

COLLABORATIVE WORK:

* Local folklore project Bailiúchán Béaloideas Árann
* A 12-part radio series Bailiúchán Bhairbre (2006-2007) for RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
* Musical director for Journey to Aran, Irish Film Institute (2011)

AWARDS:

Blog Ireland Awards – Best Blog in the Irish Language 2013
Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship 2012-14
Alan Lomax Fellowship in Folklife Studies 2012, John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington DC
NEH Keough Fellow 2011-2012, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame

Profile pic by Anne Burke.
Supervisors: Dr Lillis Ó Laoire

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Books by Deirdre Ní Chonghaile

Faoi eagar ag Ríona Nic Congáil, Máirín Nic Eoin, Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail, Pádraig Ó Liatháin & Regin... more Faoi eagar ag Ríona Nic Congáil, Máirín Nic Eoin, Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail, Pádraig Ó Liatháin & Regina Uí Chollatáin; alt uaimse dar teideal "'Sagart gan iomrádh': An tAthair Domhnall Ó Morchadha (1858-1935) agus Amhráin Pennsylvania" (2015: 191-214).

Blag é seo a leanfaidh togra nua-cheaptha atá lonnaithe agamsa, ceoltóir agus taighdeoir as Árai... more Blag é seo a leanfaidh togra nua-cheaptha atá lonnaithe agamsa, ceoltóir agus taighdeoir as Árainn, in OÉ Gaillimh. Is é sprioc an togra ná eagrán d’amhráin a cumadh in Árainn a eisiúint i bhfoirm leabhair le dlúthdhioscaí nó mp3-anna, foilseachán a mbeidh suíomh tacúil idirlín aige chomh maith. Is í aidhm an togra ná deis a thabhairt d’Árainnigh a gcuid amhrán féin atá i mbaol a chur ar ais i mbéal an phobail agus i láthair pobail eile.

I am a musician and researcher from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. This blog follows my progress on a project I have based at NUI Galway. The aim of this bilingual project is to publish an edition of songs composed in Aran. Supported by accompanying CDs/mp3s and by a partner website, the aim of the project is to enable the people of Aran to create easy access to these endangered songs, to preserve them, and to present them to communities beyond Aran.

Awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excel... more Awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence for Historical Recorded Sound Research in Folk, Ethnic, or World music.
"Bailiúchán Bhairbre is a twelve-part radio series that was first broadcast from November 2006 to February 2007 on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, and that has been available since for online listening http://www.rte.ie/rnag/bailiuchanbhairbre.html Created by the author, in collaboration with veteran broadcaster Máirtín Jaimsie Ó Flaithbheartaigh, the series introduces the eponymous private collection of reel-to-reel recordings created by Bairbre Quinn (1935-1987) to an Irish-speaking listenership. This chapter considers the multi-faceted impact of the series. The series has effectively revived a collection of recordings that lay dormant for decades. It continues to introduce these recordings to a new generation of listeners, in Bairbre’s native Aran Islands and beyond, and to highlight the historical and cultural significance of Bailiúchán Bhairbre, which captures in music the cultural clashes of a period of great change in Ireland. It also helps to counteract the historical marginalization of the music of Aran.
This chapter observes how the life of these recordings has been transformed by radio. It traces the creation, dormancy, rediscovery and reappraisal of Bailiúchán Bhairbre, and examines the decision taken by the author, with the approval of the Quinn family, to broadcast a selection of the recordings on RnaG, a station that represents an unorthodox medium in that it functions both as a community radio station and as a national broadcaster. Addressing the impact of the series – at times positive, at times negative – on the author’s research, this chapter ultimately makes a case for using radio as a tool for researching Irish traditional music. It presents the findings of one methodology, and suggests that other scholars of Irish traditional music – or, indeed, of other genres of music – might create their own methodologies that take advantage of the unique and visceral nature of the experience of listening to recordings."

Alt uaim dar teideal "Ní neart go cur le chéile: lámhscríbhínní ceoil a chruthaigh Petrie agus Ó ... more Alt uaim dar teideal "Ní neart go cur le chéile: lámhscríbhínní ceoil a chruthaigh Petrie agus Ó Comhraí in Árainn in 1857"

Together, George Petrie (1790-1866) and Eugene O’Curry (1794-1861) collected a large body of Irish traditional music. The volume of manuscripts Petrie and O’Curry left behind, the breadth of their interests, and the different languages they used all contribute to the physical separation of their collaborative work and to the separate disciplinary study of their achievements. Most studies of their collaboration focus on Petrie’s contribution to the neglect of O’Curry’s contribution. Few have engaged with the Irish song lyrics O’Curry collected for Petrie. Irish-language scholars have traditionally treated Irish song lyrics as poetic texts and few of them have had the inclination or the skills of music scholarship to study the airs that accompany song lyrics. Also, historically, few Irish music scholars have been Irish-speakers. For the first time, this lecture combines Petrie and O’Curry’s respective manuscripts to learn about their collaborative fieldwork and about traditional music in the Aran Islands. There, in 1857, the pair transcribed over thirty-three songs to create a collection that is unusual if not unique as a record of nineteenth-century music on Ireland’s offshore islands. In combining these manuscripts, I have resurrected five songs that have since disappeared from the local repertoire. This lecture discusses the difficulties and merits of trying to combine song words and their airs that have been poorly identified and documented separately. Combining these sources allows for greater historical accuracy in music scholarship, and also enables repatriation. This lecture discusses the repatriation to Aran in August 2007 of this 150-year-old music.

My article entitled "Séamus Ennis, W.R. Rodgers and Sidney Robertson Cowell and the Traditional M... more My article entitled "Séamus Ennis, W.R. Rodgers and Sidney Robertson Cowell and the Traditional Music of the Aran Islands" appears in this book, which is available to buy online from Cambridge Scholars Publishing at http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Anail-an-Bheil-Bheo--Orality-and-Modern-Irish-Culture1-4438-0152-6.htm

WWII submarine warfare encouraged developments in sound technology that brought an unforeseen boon to peacetime folk-music collecting activities. The portability of battery-powered tape recording machines brought collectors to new places further afield, places that lacked electricity. These machines produced good-quality recordings that are invaluable to our present research on past performance styles and repertoires of Irish traditional music. Such tape recordings also reveal collectors’ working methods, their motivations and their attitudes towards orality in the music they collected. In creating their catalogues of traditional music, collectors created canons and preserved therein their opinions about orality, authenticity and literacy in traditional music. These opinions reverberate through today’s traditional music. This essay surveys and contextualises the work of three collectors who sought traditional music on the Aran Islands, Co. Galway between 1945 and 1956 – Séamus Ennis of the Irish Folklore Commission, BBC’s W.R. Rodgers, and Sidney Robertson Cowell, whose ethnomusicological collecting in America spanned over twenty years. The inclusions and omissions of these collections are noteworthy. The collectors display a regard for the orality of Aran’s traditional music, prizing it as a sign of the music’s authenticity. This essay examines how these collections reflect the collectors’ opinions of orality in traditional music, and questions the implications of their opinions for traditional music. This last question is particularly pertinent in the case of Séamus Ennis, whose countrywide experience of collecting and making music conferred him with an authority that influenced opinions thereafter on the traditional music of certain localities.

The proceedings of the eleventh Ceiliúradh an Bhlascaoid, October 2006, held in Ionad an Bhlascao... more The proceedings of the eleventh Ceiliúradh an Bhlascaoid, October 2006, held in Ionad an Bhlascaoid, Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry.

Seo an chéad chnuasach d'ábhar, idir phrós agus fhilíocht, le cuid de na baill de "Chumann Scríbh... more Seo an chéad chnuasach d'ábhar, idir phrós agus fhilíocht, le cuid de na baill de "Chumann Scríbhneoirí Óga agus Úra na Gaeilge" - guthanna sainiúla nua i litríocht na Gaeilge.

This is the first collection of material, prose and poetry, from some of the members of Cumann Scríbhneoirí Óga agus Úra na Gaeilge - new singular voices in Irish literature.

Papers by Deirdre Ní Chonghaile

Journal of American Folklore, 2013

This article discusses the American folk music collector and ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson C... more This article discusses the American folk music collector and ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell (1903–1995). It considers the work she conducted in Ireland in 1955 and 1956 in light of her twenty-one-year career from 1936 to 1957, during which she collected in America, Canada, Iran, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia. It investigates how her interest in the question of the identity of American music influenced her work.

Béaloideas 84 (2016): 84-103.

Irish University Review 46.2 (2016): 243–259.

ComharTaighde

Nuair a dhéanfar comóradh ar Éirí Amach na Cásca i 2016, is cinnte go mbeidh fonn áirithe ceoil a... more Nuair a dhéanfar comóradh ar Éirí Amach na Cásca i 2016, is cinnte go mbeidh fonn áirithe ceoil ag dul go haer: is é sin fonn an amhráin Róisín Dubh mar a chóirigh Seán Ó Riada é don scannán Mise Éire. Bhí rogha phríomh-fhoinn an scannáin chomh tréan spreagúil sin uaidh, agus a chóiriú ceolfhoirne chomh hallabhrach do-dhearmadta, go bhfuil an fonn agus an scannán anois fite fuaite i gcuimhne an phobail. Is minic le daoine Mise Éire a thabhairt ar fhonn Róisín Dubh, agus creideann mórán gurb é Ó Riada a chum é, botún a chuir díomá air. Scrúdaíonn an t-alt seo conas mar a chruthaigh Ó Riada saol nua don fhonn seo – agus, dá bhrí sin, don amhrán é féin – saol ina bhfuil nasc dlúth aige le 1916 agus le ceol, stair, agus féiniúlacht na hÉireann. Tugtar léargas ar an úsáid éifeachtach a bhain Ó Riada as ceolfhoirniú agus as foinn agus móitífeanna chun cuidiú le scéal an scannáin a insint. Mínítear conas a tharraing sé ar thraidisiúin éagsúla – ceol na scannán, ceol an náisiúnachais, agus traidisiún na foirne ceoil – chun brí agus anam a chur sna fuílligh as a ndearnadh an scannán, ríleanna fánacha nuachta agus grianghraif. Freisin, áitítear go mbaineann nuálaíocht Uí Riada le traidisiún idirnáisiúnta aintiún neamh-oifigiúil. Ag tagairt do shamplaí as iar-choilíneachtaí Rúiseacha, an Fhionlainn agus an Eastóin, léireofar gur féidir le fonn amháin gníomhú in aeráidí éagsúla polaitiúla chun an status quo a threascairt agus, ansin, a dhaingniú.

Mo Ghnósa Leas an Dáin: In Omós do Mháirtín Ó Direáin, 2014

Études Irlandaises, 2014

The Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland are a palimpsest bearing layers of representations... more The Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland are a palimpsest bearing layers of representations in a myriad of forms including literature, film, television, radio, photography, and art, representations created by islanders and visitors. In the resulting Aran canon, which is dominated by visiting authors instead of local authors, the music of the Aran Islands – which is classified here as Irish traditional or folk music – has, however, been marginalized. This is surprising because both Irish traditional music and Aran itself are often cast independently of each other as entities that depict Irishness, entities that are, in fact, for many observers, exemplars of that identity. This article questions how the visitor’s experience of listening in Aran, which differs radically from that of locals, has contributed to the marginalization of local music in the wider discourse and practice of Irish traditional music and Irish culture. It focuses on two of the forces at work in the marginalization of the music of Aran. They are an appetite for silence and the silencing of music. Referencing the work of John Millington Synge, Kuno Meyer, Fr. Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh and Andrew McNeillie, and that of the local poet Máirtín Ó Direáin, it considers the motives and fears that led visitors and islanders to treat the music of Aran as they did. This article is ultimately about how the act of listening to the world around us has a fundamental impact on how we represent islands and their cultures. Acknowledging the strong association between music and place that permeates the discourse of Irish traditional music and how, through the uniquely visceral experience of listening, that association has come to be so pervasive, it questions how and why, through the choices we make when we are listening, we perform notions of authenticity, musicality, and identity.

Canadian Journal of Irish Studies/Revue Canadienne d'Études Irlandaises, 2011

Léachtaí Cholm Cille XL: Foinn agus Focail, 2010

This is the first collection of material, prose and poetry, from some of the members of Cumann Scríbhneoirí Óga agus Úra na Gaeilge - new singular voices in Irish literature.

Journal of American Folklore, 2013

Béaloideas 84 (2016): 84-103.

Irish University Review 46.2 (2016): 243–259.

ComharTaighde

Mo Ghnósa Leas an Dáin: In Omós do Mháirtín Ó Direáin, 2014

Études Irlandaises, 2014

Canadian Journal of Irish Studies/Revue Canadienne d'Études Irlandaises, 2011

Léachtaí Cholm Cille XL: Foinn agus Focail, 2010

Bilingual seminar for Conradh na Gaeilge, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary

Roinn na Gaeluinne, University College Cork

Roinn na Gaeilge, Maynooth University

Áras Mháirtín Uí Chadhain, NUI Galway, An Cheathrú Rua

This talk introduces Rev. Fr. Domhnall Ó Morchadha (1858-1935) from the Ox Mountains – Sligo’s la... more This talk introduces Rev. Fr. Domhnall Ó Morchadha (1858-1935) from the Ox Mountains – Sligo’s last Gaeltacht – a man who spent most of his life working as a music scholar and collector in Philadelphia and in the surrounding coal-mining towns of rural Pennsylvania. Rev. Murphy’s efforts to document sean-nós song, folklore, and folktales were preceded by those of his friend and fellow exile, J.J. Lyons of Glenamaddy, Co. Galway. Together, over 51 years from around 1884 to 1935, they created the largest extant independently-produced collection of Irish-language song. Numbering over 1,100 songs, it is a rare achievement that echoes the later efforts of Sam Henry to preserve the English-language song of Ireland. The Philadelphia collection is, however, more significant because of the atypical context from which it emerged: an industrial East Coast metropolis. What Chief Francis O’Neill and Sgt. James O’Neill did for instrumental music in Chicago, Lyons and Murphy did for sean-nós song in Philadelphia. This talk considers the background of these two collectors, their motives and methodologies, what they did with the songs they transcribed, and what became of their collection. The collection demonstrates forcibly the significance of songs and singing to Gaelic-speakers who emigrated to America in the Famine and post-Famine period. It raises questions about the lives of the thousands of Irish people in Pennsylvania; about the use of Irish among the fin-de-siècle diaspora; about the collecting and publishing of contemporary sean-nós song; and about the future scholarly potential of the collection, in particular for historians, folklorists, and song scholars.

This talk will consider an extraordinary moment in the history of Irish film when three sound fil... more This talk will consider an extraordinary moment in the history of Irish film when three sound films emerged from the Aran Islands in the space of a year. While the first of the three, Robert Flaherty's feature-length Man of Aran, is well-known worldwide, the two shorts - Flaherty's Oidhche Sheanchais and Norris Davidson's Damhsa Árann - have remained comparatively unexplored because, up until 2012, they were both regarded as lost. Oidhche Sheanchais has since been recovered but Damhsa Árann remains missing. This talk will examine the making of these three films, giving special attention to the lesser known shorts. Considering all three films together will help to contextualise their contrasting depictions of Aran, arguably one of Ireland's most iconic places, and also their contributions to the emerging genre of film: documentary.

Ag tarraingt ar stair an amhráin is cáiliúla dar cumadh in Árainn, amhrán a cumadh in aimsir an d... more Ag tarraingt ar stair an amhráin is cáiliúla dar cumadh in Árainn, amhrán a cumadh in aimsir an drochshaoil, Amhrán Shéamuis Uí Chonchubhair nó Seanmóir Uí Chonchubhair, roinnfear léargas ar an saol in Árainn agus i gConamara i lár an naoú céad déag. Ag tógáil ar shaothar scoláirí éagsúla – ina measc, an tAthair Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (1890), Antoine Powell (1983), agus Brian Ó Catháin (2012) – díreofar ach go háirithe ar chomhthéacs an amhráin. Pléifear cúlra an fhile agus na gnéithe éagsúla de shaol na linne a spreag cumadh an amhráin, ina measc, an bochtanas, smacht na cléire, agus cumhacht na ngníomhairí talún. Bronnfar léargas ar scaipeadh an Phrotastúnachais, ar an gcomórtas idir na creidimh éagsúla, ar an tionchar ar an bpobal áitiúil, agus ar iarrachtaí na ndaoine cur in aghaidh an dúshaothraithe a d’fhulaing siad. Fiosrófar an éifeacht a bhí ag an gcomhthéacs seo ar chuimhne agus ar dhíchuimhne an amhráin, a mhair seal in Árainn agus seal eile in Philadelphia Mheiriceá, ach a fuair saol níos faide i gConamara mar gheall ar fheidhm threascarthach an amhráin: is í sin, seasamh i gcoinne na géarleanúna.

A panel discussion at the Irish Film Institute, featuring Barbara Hillers, Natasha Sumner, Brian ... more A panel discussion at the Irish Film Institute, featuring Barbara Hillers, Natasha Sumner, Brian Ó Catháin, Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, Luke Gibbons and Deirdre Ní Chonghaile.

http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/news/scholarfest-2015.html To celebrate the 15th anniversary of The... more http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/news/scholarfest-2015.html
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of The John W. Kluge Center, the Center hosts the first-ever #ScholarFest, a unique mixture of rapid-fire dialogues, panels and scholarly conversations on Capitol Hill.

http://inishfestival.com/?page\_id=574

B’as Gaeltacht dheireanach Shligigh, íochtar Shliabh Gamh, don Athair Domhnall Ó Morchadha (1858-... more B’as Gaeltacht dheireanach Shligigh, íochtar Shliabh Gamh, don Athair Domhnall Ó Morchadha (1858-1935), fear a chaith an chuid is mó dá shaol i bhPhiladelphia ag gníomhú mar bhailitheoir agus scoláire amhrán. Ag saothrú sa chathair úd agus i mbailte mianadóireachta in iargúl Phennsylvania, tháinig sé i gcomharbacht ar Ghaillimheach, Seán Ó Laighin. Idir 1884 agus 1935, chruthaigh siad an bailiúchán neamhspleách is toirtiúla d’amhráin Gaeilge dá maireann, bailiúchán atá suntasach mar gheall ar an gcomhthéacs neamhghnách ina cruthaíodh é: lár-ionad uirbeach iltíreach tionsclaithe ar Chósta Thoir Mheiriceá. Mar a ghníomhaigh na Néilligh i Chicago ar son an cheoil uirlise, rinne Ó Morchadha agus Ó Laighean amhlaidh d’amhráin Gaeilge Philadelphia. Pléifear cúlra na mbailitheoirí, céard a spreag iad chun bailiú, an modh oibre a bhí acu, agus céard a rinne siad leis na hamhráin a bhailigh siad.

Amhrán Shéamuis Uí Chonchubhair: exploitation and persecution in Árainn and Conamara. This paper... more Amhrán Shéamuis Uí Chonchubhair: exploitation and persecution in Árainn and Conamara.
This paper draws on the history of Aran’s most famous song, the Famine-era composition Amhrán Shéamuis Uí Chonchubhair or Seanmóir Uí Chonchubhair [James Connor’s Sermon], to offer insight into life in Aran and Conamara in the mid-nineteenth century. Building on the work of other scholars including Fr Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (1890), Antoine Powell (1983), and Brian Ó Catháin (2012), the paper will present a contextual study of the life of the song to reveal how the poet’s circumstances and particular aspects of contemporary life - including poverty, church control, and the power of the local land agent - inspired his composition. It will demonstrate the spread of Protestantism in the region, the conflict between it and Catholicism, the effect on the local community, and the efforts of some to resist the exploitation they endured. The impact of its legacy will be assessed in relation to the remembering and forgetting of the song, which survived for a time in Aran and in Philadelphia but gained a stronger foothold in Conamara thanks to its subversive purpose: that is, to fight persecution.

Ag tarraingt ar stair an amhráin is cáiliúla dar cumadh in Árainn, amhrán a cumadh in aimsir an drochshaoil, Amhrán Shéamuis Uí Chonchubhair nó Seanmóir Uí Chonchubhair, roinnfear léargas ar an saol in Árainn agus i gConamara i lár an naoú céad déag. Ag tógáil ar shaothar scoláirí éagsúla – ina measc, an tAthair Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (1890), Antoine Powell (1983), agus Brian Ó Catháin (2012) – díreofar ach go háirithe ar chomhthéacs an amhráin. Pléifear cúlra an fhile agus na gnéithe éagsúla de shaol na linne a spreag cumadh an amhráin, ina measc, an bochtanas, smacht na cléire, agus cumhacht na ngníomhairí talún. Bronnfar léargas ar scaipeadh an Phrotastúnachais, ar an gcomórtas idir na creidimh éagsúla, ar an tionchar ar an bpobal áitiúil, agus ar iarrachtaí na ndaoine cur in aghaidh an dúshaothraithe a d’fhulaing siad. Fiosrófar an éifeacht a bhí ag an gcomhthéacs seo ar chuimhne agus ar dhíchuimhne an amhráin, a mhair seal in Árainn agus seal eile in Philadelphia Mheiriceá, ach a fuair saol níos faide i gConamara mar gheall ar fheidhm threascarthach an amhráin: is í sin, seasamh i gcoinne na géarleanúna.

The centenary commemorations for the 1916 Rising are sure to include one iconic piece of music: t... more The centenary commemorations for the 1916 Rising are sure to include one iconic piece of music: the traditional Irish song air Róisín Dubh as arranged by Seán Ó Riada for George Morrison’s 1959 film Mise Éire. So inspired was Ó Riada’s choice of a main musical theme for the film, and so evocative and memorable was its stirring orchestral setting, that the melody has since become synonymous with the film. The air to Róisín Dubh is often mistakenly called Mise Éire and, to Ó Riada’s chagrin, erroneously assumed to be his own composition. This paper investigates how Ó Riada transformed this melody and, by extension, the song itself into an icon of 1916, of Irish music, of Irish history, and of Irish identity. It details Ó Riada’s effective use of orchestration and song melodies and motifs to aid the narrative flow of the film. It explains how Ó Riada drew on several different traditions including film music, nationalistic music, and orchestral music in order to bring to life what was originally a collection of fragmentary newsreels and photographs. It also situates Ó Riada’s innovation in an international tradition of unofficial anthems of insurrection. Referencing examples from former Russian colonies, Finland and Estonia, it shows how a single melody can, in different political climates, serve to subvert and then to reinforce the status quo.

Harvard Department of Celtic Languages & Literatures in association with the Harvard Film Archive... more Harvard Department of Celtic Languages & Literatures in association with the Harvard Film Archive and Houghton Library presents Robert Flaherty's lost classic and the first film in the Irish language: Oidhche Sheanchais (A Night of Storytelling). An initial screening will be followed by a discussion, and later a reception and conversation.