“Alternative Ulster”: The First Wave of Punk in Northern Ireland (1976-1983) (original) (raw)

Études anglaises N°1/2018 The Music of the 1970s: Singular Voices, 2018

Abstract

1970s Northern Ireland is more readily associated with conflict and sectarian tensions than with vibrant expressions of popular culture. And yet, between 1976 and 1983, a local punk scene thrived. Although it was a highly exclusive subculture, it treated all of its participants alike. Young people ignored their political, religious and class differences and met up in streets and record shops during the day, and at night crowded into the few bars that allowed punk bands to play, thus giving rise to one of the few spaces in Northern Irish society in which cross-community coexistence, cooperation and camaraderie was possible. Punk also gave a voice to the young people who chose to take part in it and allowed them to explore, through the medium of songs, a whole range of themes which, up until then, had seldom been addressed in popular music, from social and political issues to previously unexplored aspects of popular culture.

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